The Rapid Prototyping
Patent Museum

3. Rapid Tooling

Rapid tooling is a special case of rapid manufacturing (RM), one of the areas of strongest interest for RP at present. Every method of RP has been used in one form or another for direct manufacturing. Tooling applications were among the first to be pursued vigorously and provided a lot of the early driving force for RM. Rapid prototyping is frequently an advantageous way to produce tooling which is often expensive and time-consuming to build, and requires complex shapes. However, not all additive processes apply to a great range of the problems encountered in this field. Thus, processes such as stereolithography and selective laser sintering have received most of the development attention over the years while others, also used in tooling applications such as inkjets, have received much less.

A few additive manufacturing technologies have been invented specifically to address rapid tooling applications. In most cases, however, basic RP processes were adapted to the problem either by changing the operating parameters of the machinery or through the use of specially adapted materials. Patents have resulted from both lines of development. Among the former are a large number of patents describing the Sprayform process available from Ford Global Technologies and those describing the rapid solidification process originally developed by INEEL. Among the latter are patents describing sand casting materials assigned to EOS GmbH and the conformal cooling of injection molds assigned to MIT.

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1. Historically important 2. Basic technology patents	3. Rapid Tooling 4. Important RP technology improvements	5. Medical RP Applications 6. Direct Manufacturing

Year US Patent No. Title Inventor Assignee or Resulting Commercial Entity Technology Area

3. Rapid Tooling

1989 4844144 Investment casting utilizing patterns produced by stereolithography Murphy; Edward J., Ansel; Robert E., Krajewski; John J. DeSoto, Inc. -

1995 5460851 Spray deposition of metals Jenkins; Walter N. Sprayforming Developments Limited (UK) purchased by Ford Sprayforming

1996 5562846 Method of making a mold part having a cooling passage McKeen; W. John Northern Telecom Limited (Canada) -

1998 5718863 Spray forming process for producing molds, dies and related tooling McHugh; Kevin M. ; Key; James F. Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company licensed to RSP, Tooling LLC rapid solidification process (RSP)

1998 5775402 Enhancement of thermal properties of tooling made by solid free form fabrication techniques Sachs; Emanuel, Michaels; Steven P., Allen; Samuel M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology conformal cooling

1998 5793015 Apparatus for rapidly forming laminated dies Walczyk; Daniel Massachusetts Inst. of Technology laminated tooling

1999 5906781 Method of using thermally reversible material to form ceramic molds Tobin; James Robert . Procter & Gamble Company donated to Milwaukee School of Engineering PHAST tooling process

2000 6147138 Method for manufacturing of parts by a deposition technique Hochsmann; Rainer ; Ederer; Ingo Generis GmbH (Germany) acquired by ProMetal sand casting molds from 3DP-like technoogy

2000 6155331 Method for use in casting technology Langer; Hans ; Wilkening; Christian ; Keller; Peter ; Wendt; Florian . EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems (Germany). sand casting molds from SLS

Year US Patent No. Title Inventor Assignee or Resulting Commercial Entity Technology Area

Use the Prev | Next links provided on each page to proceed sequentially through the entire patent list, although not precisely in the order the entries appear in the table. Links provided in the "Technology Area" column will take you to pages within the WWGRP site that either briefly explain the method, or to directory listings or archived materials where more information can be found. You can also use the site search function and main index to uncover additional information.

The Rapid Prototyping Patent Museum

3. Rapid Tooling

The Rapid Prototyping
Patent Museum