This paper describes a manufacturing process to produce injection molding tools by lamination of aluminum alloy sheets. The process involves design of the tool using 3D CAD modeling, slicing of the data into cross sections, laser beam cutting of the sheets into 2D profiles, lamination, bonding, milling and finishing. This technology allows to include complex cooling channels in order to achieve a significant reduction of the cycle time and to control the cooling process. Because of the low bonding temperature and force, large tools can be made in a time- and cost-effective manner. The manufacturing system is similar to the technology developed by Nakagawa et al. [T. Nakagawa, M. Kunieda, S. Liu, Laser cut sheet laminated forming dies by diffusion bonding, in: Proceedings of the 25th International MTDR Conference, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Japan, 1985]; however, the used sheet material is different and therefore, the bonding method. In this article, the introduced bonding technique, laser cutting, milling and other important parameters such as bonding strength are discussed. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
