Rapid Tooling Techniques

3D Keltool

The Keltool process is an advanced process of producing long-life soft tooling quickly and economically for prototype and production runs from one to hundreds to even millions of plastic injection molded parts.

The word "Keltool" refers to the proprietary powder metal sintering process, which involves infiltrating a fused metal part with copper alloy. This alloy fills in the voids in the otherwise porous material, producing a surface with the finish and hardness necessary for an injection mold.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

This process requires a master pattern, typically an ACES SLA model, that can be used to develop a silicone mold that will then be used to produce the Keltool mold. The Keltool mold is then processed with a copper infiltration and sintered to increase its strength and cure the mold. The finished Keltool part has the hardness of a A6 Tool Steel and can be machined like a traditional hard tool.

Specifications

Production Time:

Utilizing the 3D Keltool process, mold inserts can be turned around in two weeks time. Inserts can be fit into a mold base and can be producing injection molded plastic parts in just four weeks.

The process develops like this:

• 1-2 Days: Working prototype
• 1-2 Days: Development of core and cavity inserts.
• 2 weeks: A6 tool steel mold inserts.
• 2-3 days: fitting of inserts into a mold base.
• 2-3 days: molded plastic parts in a specific resin.

 

Tool Life Expectancies:

100,000 to 10,000,000 shots depending on material.

Accuracy

The accuracy of Keltool is a function of the master pattern incorporating the appropriate shrinkages for the pattern itself, the silicone mold, Keltool process, and the thermoplastic material.  Accuracies are typically 0.005 to 0.015 inches.

 

Size Limitations

The Keltool part (mold) is limited to 6 inches in all directions. Therefore, any parts produced would be limited to about 4 inches in all directions.