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Beyond rapid prototyping: direct manufacturing: when Linear Mold started using laser-sintering for tooling inserts, it accelerated mold production and reduced costs.

Publication: Automotive Design & Production
Publication Date: 01-NOV-08 		Format: Online
Delivery: Immediate Online Access

Article Excerpt
Direct metal laser-sintering (DMLS) is different than common machining/ milling techniques, which produce parts by removing material. DMLS is an additive process: a part is made by "growing" it in layers, each layer being a very, very thin slice of a computer-aided design (CAD) solid model. In some production applications, DMLS can replace the more-conventional machining processes. This was the case for Linear Mold ft Engineering (Livonia, MI; www.linearmold.com), which installed a couple of DMLS machines to complement its conventional machine tools for manufacturing molds and mold inserts. Three years later, Linear Mold has the numbers showing that DMLS replaced certain production steps, reduced production time, and ultimately reduced costs-to the tune of 15[degrees]/o to 30%, depending on the complexity of the part.

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John Tenbusch, president, founded Linear Mold in 2003. The company manufactures plastic injection molds,...

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