33. Rapid Tooling
In the broadest sense, rapid tooling is any ways and means or technology that makes you produce tooling quickly. Many business agree, however, that it means tooling driven by an additive
production tooling process - the key to making it rapidly.
Two categories of rapid tooling have developed. One is an indirect approach that uses one or more master patterns to produce a tool. An example is epoxy-based composite tooling.
The second category is a direct approach, meaning that an additive production tooling process builds the core and cavity
mold inserts directly, in the case of
custom molds tooling. Direct metal laser sintering from EOS has been used to produce these types of tools.