Direct laser sintering of Cu-based metallic powder for injection moulding

Direct laser sintering is an attractive Rapid Prototyping (RP) process for producing injection mould inserts, because of its capacity of fabricating any desired three-dimensional (3-D) parts directly from metal powder. This paper reports a research work on the fabricating Cu-based injection mould inserts using direct laser sintering. A pair of mobile phone cover mould inserts was successfully fabricated in a self-developed rapid prototyping machine in ambient atmosphere at room temperature. The total sintering time is 40 hours. 65% relative theoretical density and average surface roughness Ra 14-16mum were achieved with negligible distortion and curling. Infiltration epoxy was employed as post-process to improve the density and the strength of the sintered parts. The moulds were used to mould ABS-PC phone mobile cover after finishing. No defects were detected after moulding of 100 components.