Proposal Summary:

The advent of modern fabrication processes is opening a new era for manufacturing technologies; it also secures growth opportunities for western European moldmakers. This revolution aims to turn tools, originally considered to bear high added value and expensive development costs, a mainstream commodity by cutting up to 75% of the manufacturing cycle. In their actual instances, modern tooling fabrication processes are introducing a significant amount of new design concepts, manufacturing paradigms and constrains. The modern tooling concept relies on the integration of a solution into a decades old trade and in a labor intensive workflow, it provides a more effective usage of the traditional and the new technology, thereby delivering greater efficiency of men and their machines, higher yields and technical ingenuity for moldmaking shops.

Introduction:

Currently, the design of a tool is dictated by its manufacturability using traditional machine tools such as mills, lathes and other material removal based techniques. Additionally, this is exacerbated by the extensive know-how required to convert a tool design into a machine tool program yielding the desired output upon execution. New manufacturing concepts are now readily available to transparently convert the design into a machine program yielding, in a systematic fashion, the desired tool.

Essentially, the fabrication processes considered are those of:

• Solid Freeform Fabrication,
• High speed machining,
• Reverse Engineering

The aim of the Special Interest Group of the SPE 1) to inform SPE members about these new manufacturing processes and provide a realistic feel for their requirements, constraints and returns through seminars and other sponsored SPE events, 2) Initiate SPE members to these new technologies, by providing peers testimonials, through publications in the European version of SPE Magazine, European Mold & Tool Magazine or during sponsored events, 3) Attempt to develop a modern tooling culture, helping in providing comparable grounds as well as provide substantial information guiding through the wealth of different processes, 4) Initiate the creation of a design knowledgebase, serving as a repository to help in promoting the expanded tool design freedom offered by these new techniques, as well as other practices and trade. 5) Maintain SPE members abreast of all new developments in this area, using a partnership with the Rapid Tooling equipment market players, Powder & Pastes Suppliers, through publishing of news release in the European Edition of the SPE Magazine and European Mold & Tool Magazine. 6) Acting in partnership with other SPE Divisions. Additionally, bringing cutting edge technology will help invigorate the moldmaking technology and attract younger viewer such as students. 7) Attempting to consult and gather European experts (from ArcCam, PEP, EOS, CRIF, Fraunhofer IFAM, Trumpf, Optomec...) which will help widen the applicability and knowledge of this subdivision.