High speed milling, electro discharge machining and direct metal laser sintering: A method to optimize these processes in hybrid rapid tooling

Prototype injection moulds for plastic parts must face two constraints: be designed and manufactured as quickly as possible and have a short lead time. Moreover, moulds have to evolve in the same way as the part does, to provide either a new functionality or a variant of this part. The current approach is based on a multi component tooling (hybrid rapid tooling) in order to more easily manufacture each component of the mould and to have a greater reactivity to each product evolution. In this paper, we propose a method to manufacture the mould in multi components. This approach is based on process capability criteria (i.e. topological and geometrical criteria). An industrial example is presented. We will focus on the choice between three processes mainly used in hybrid rapid tooling: high speed machining (HSM), electro discharging machining (EDM) and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS).