A quick guide on everything you need to know about rapid tooling

For those who want to produce and market their product faster, rapid prototyping is your go-to service as it provides machined parts or products ready for testing before mass-production is rolled out.

The use and application of rapid tooling has been on the rise in recent years that includes a wide variety of rapid prototyping techniques that will help our design at Nice Rapid, especially during the product development phase bringing all your ideas to light.

Thanks to modern tech and rapid tooling, nowadays, you can validate and test your manufactured parts to point out faults and inefficiencies before production tooling commences. In the production world, rapid tooling is referred to in many terms, such as prototype mold, soft tooling, or prototypes tooling. For this article, we are going to go with rapid tooling.

For this article, we are going to go a little bit deeper and discuss the benefits and advantages of rapid tooling. But first, lets briefly look at what is rapid tooling?

Definition of rapid tooling

In simpler terms, it’s the creation of prototypes within a limited time frame. Parts produced presents us with the perfect solution when it comes to testing and evaluation of prototypes before going into full production mode.

The tooling techniques will create inserts such as cavity of the parts, side actions, and the core. Depending on the tooling techniques that you choose, they come with their own set of benefits. There are plenty of things that need to be considered if you are going to get the full benefits of the process.

The cost benefits of rapid tooling will vary depending on materials used, accuracy, technology, consistency, and finally, size.

Application of rapid tooling

There are plenty of applications, especially in the manufacturing sectors. The applications of the technique are set to grow in the next few years as engineers and designers come with new procedures.

Below are some of the most commonly used procedures

• Making of molds for both non-metallic and metallic molds
• Making of casting cores and shapes, the latest tech SLS application used in sand casting cores and shapes.
• Manufacture of hybrid patterns for casting, making splintering tools, marking stamps, and electrodes for EDM.

Advantages of rapid tooling

Presents a chance for innovation

With the elimination of conventional tooling, rapid tooling provides opportunities for improvement as designers will be able to come up with complex strategies and geometries that otherwise would have been impossible with conventional tooling.

Saves time

Rapid tooling eliminates the need to create special tools, patterns, or molds that mainly come with conventional tooling, thus saving you time as well as shortening the duration between idea and evaluation.

With a quick turnaround, companies will have an edge by bringing in competitive products into the market.

Economical

The parts produce identically to the one manufactured in full-scale production. The parts can be used for stress testing as well as impact. The results from testing can enable you to evaluate and point out the changes before mass-production begins.

There are plenty of reasons why you should seriously consider rapid tooling. Its fast, cost-effective, and enables your parts to reach the market faster.