The mold cost often takes a high percentage of the manufacturing cost in molding processes suchas injection molding, compression molding, RTM/VARTM, blow molding, etc., especially inproduct and process developments. In order to reduce the mold cost, a nanocomposite material isdeveloped as low-cost tooling (LCT) material in our group. LCT has many advantages over thetraditional LCT materials in mechanical, thermal, electrical, machining, etc. properties. Thecasting of mold cavities and pre-inserting cooling or heating coils reduce the mold cost, further.In this study, two molds were made and tested with LCT material; one is for injection moldingwith thermoplastic polymer and the other is for a vacuum bag process with thermosetting resin.The test results show that the molds can be fabricated with LCT, quickly and inexpensively,either in serving in harsh conditions (injection molding) or large mold size. It is useful in productand process developments as well as prototype fabrications.
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