Abstract:

In the global trend of electric mobility faster development approaches are required for reducing time-to-market. These approaches include agile product development and building prototypes at earlier stages in the development process. This is especially relevant for plastic parts because of the high number of such parts in vehicles. Polymer-based additive manufacturing of injection molds is cheaper and faster than conventional tooling. Therefore, polymer additive injection molds allow for plastic parts to be produced and validated at an early stage. This paper provides a proof of concept of polymer additive injection molds with slides for plastic parts with undercuts. The investigation consists of design and additive manufacturing of injection molds and an experimental study including calculation of process capability. Finally, design aspects of polymer additive injection mold are to be considered in the future. These include dimensioning of the inclined bolt.