Application of Additive Manufacturing in Thermoforming Mold Design

Molds used for the production of Plastic parts in Plastic processing industries are made from Metals or Aluminium. These Molds are not suitable for low run application because of its high initial cost and large delivery time. The literature review shows that till date Additive Manufacturing finding its application in inserts in injection molding and Availability of high-temperature filaments can help to extend its application in mold design. The objective of this project work is to design and 3D Print a mold by using Additive manufacturing process. Reverse engineering is used to calculate the design parameters and 3D Modeling can be done using Solidworks 2018 software. ANSYS WORKBENCH 18.0 is used to calculate the strength of the mold. ABS Plus filament is considered for manufacturing of mold. Results show that the additive manufacturing method helps to develop the Mold in low manufacturing cost with the good strength and finish. And the result also shows that the Additive Manufacturing is best suited for low run injection molding and it also reduces the product development time in R&D.