Rapid prototype injection molding

摘要

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for making a prototype injection molded part. An extruder of the type used for fused deposition modeling injects production thermoplastic material into a heated nonconductive plastic mold tool slowly at low pressure in an isothermic process. The mold tool may be built from a CAD drawing by fused deposition modeling or another rapid prototyping technique. Using the present invention, an injection molded prototype part can be made from a digital representation of the part within 24 hours by an engineer in an office environment.