A Simple and Cost-Effective Method for Fabricating Epoxy-Based Composite Mold Inserts

Epoxy-based composite molds are frequently used for polymer and wax materials injection. Three kinds of epoxy-based composite mold inserts fabrication methods are proposed in this work. A simple and cost-effective method for fabricating epoxy-based composite mold inserts of propeller using rapid prototyping and rapid tooling technique is demonstrated. The advantages of this method include high successful rate of mold fabrication, low-cost, and good surface roughness of the mold inserts. This method can be employed in the intermediate tooling to produce a small quantity of working samples by plastic injection molding at the first development stage for a new product.