Technical Development of Hybrid Rapid Tooling Technology
The surface finish of fused deposition modeling (FDM) processed part is excessively rough due to stair stepping effect. In addition, the tensile strength of rapid tooling fabricated by FDM is inferior to that fabricated by plastic injection molding. A hybrid rapid tooling technology is developed to improve the surface roughness and increase the tensile strength of rapid tooling fabricated by FDM using epoxy-based composite in this work. Improvement rate of tensile strength of rapid tooling is 2.34 times of the add rate of epoxy-based composite. Surface roughness improvement rate of up to 92.94% can be achieved. Hybrid rapid tooling technology owns low manufacturing cost, simple manufacturing process and good flexibility.