Study of LOM Additive Manufacturing Process in Pattern Making Application

Additive Manufacturing Process is a recent development in industry to help and solve the problems and limitations of traditional prototyping methods. of course, "rapid" is a relative term. The term rapid prototyping refers to a class of technologies that can automatically construct physical models from computer aided Design (CAD) data. RP allows the designers to quickly create tangible prototypes that ere subtractive in nature. In addition to prototypes, RP techniques can also be used to make tooling and even production-quality parts. For small production runs and complicated objects, rapid prototyping is often the best manufacturing process available. The adoption of rapid prototyping (RP) techniques within the pattern making and foundry industry has necessitated a complete overhaul of skills requirements within the industry. The ever increasing, and soon to be universal, use of CAD by designers, even at prototype stage, has given the production of RP models a distinct advantage over conventional techniques. CAD data can be utilized directly by RP machines to generate a part, thus ensuring an exact replica, without the errors introduced by manual interpretation of drawings, is produced. This revolution has certainly cost jobs and is permanently eroding the skill base of pattern and model making, but only those who can adapt to the new methods of working will survive. Flexibility to give short lead times from CAD model to finished part are the main criteria for success and the prototype pattern maker, with adaptation, can play a vital role in this process.