摘要：Polymer Jetting (PolyJet) has proved to be one of the most accurate additive manufacturing technologies, in order to manufacture rapid tools. Rapid Tooling (RT) is different from conventional tooling as follow: manufacturing time is shorter, the cost is much less, but the tool life is shorter and tolerances are wider. The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study between the soft tools (silicon moulds) and hard tools (acrylic thermoplastic moulds) based on the Polymer Jetting technology. Thus, two types of moulds have been made in order to manufacture a test part. Reaction injection moulding (RIM) and casting techniques were used to fill these moulds with resins that simulate the plastic injection materials. Rapid tooling applications, such as indirect tooling and direct tooling, based on PolyJet technology were experimentally investigated.
