Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Rapid Prototyping (RP) has made massive strides in the technological industries and is at the fore front of innovation. However, the majority of them use different types of plastic and other materials including resins, flour etc., for the production of prototypes. They can only be used as visual prototypes in most instances and do not provide sufficient information for direct material testing which is needed to understand the mechanical properties for large scale production. The current methods employing powder metals have their limitations and are very expensive. There is an emphasis on the production of metal parts because they provide real time results rather than approximations and usually give more insight into the design parameters. This paper presents a novel rapid prototyping method for the production of cheap and high quality metal parts that are suitable for direct testing. The process is a combination of Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) and soldering technologies. The process is referred to as Composite Metal Foil Manufacturing (CMFM) and this paper presents its principle both in theory and in practice. Tensile testing has been done to prove the effectiveness of the process that shows promising results.