DEVELOPMENT OF CASTING PATTERN USING RAPID PROTOTYPING

Abstract

Be it a product based or process based industry, quality is by far the most important characteristic by a customer. To improve the quality in foundries around the world, CAD/CAM and other packages have been used as a tool to achieve quality and productivity. In this concern, the use of Rapid Prototyping (RP) is not yet fully practiced in foundries. This research provides a detail study of the fabrication of a master pattern (step bar) of casting using rapid prototyping technique as well as presenting its scope and benefits compared to the current practices. The main objective of this paper is to enlighten the foundry engineers to make use of rapid prototyping technology (fused deposition modeling), to reduce the lead-time in the production of accurate sand castings of an acceptable quality and dimensional accuracy. This work extends in its research to study microscopic observation of casting and mechanical properties of casting model. Apart from that, it also focuses upon the comparative study of surface roughness of the RP model and wooden model.