213. Materials for rapid prototyping
Materials for rapid prototyping include phonemics, melamine, urea-formaldehyde, epoxies, urethanes, and lassoers. Typical TS plastic moldings include electric plugs, sockets, and housings; pot handles, and dinnerware plates. Advantages noted for compression molding in these applications include: molds that are simpler, less expensive, and require low maintenance; less scrap; and low residual stresses in the molded parts (thus favoring this process for flat thin parts such as phonograph records). A typical disadvantage is longer cycle times and therefore lower production rates than injection molding.