A single automobile has about 30,000 parts, counting every part down to the smallest screws. Therefore, the process of developing an automobile would be a voluminous task, which could even take thousands of people a couple of years. From automotive project initiation to mass production, every automotive company follows its own R&D procedures, which generally comprises market research, vehicle concept design, engineering design, prototype testing and production ramp-up.
Market Demand
The design of interiors and exteriors as a link of automotive design, is an important part of automobile engineering data, and consists of front end, door panel, roof, instrument panel system, side trim etc. A large number of prototypes will be needed during the development process for structural testing, material testing, road testing, etc. The figure below is the R&D flowchart of an automotive company (P0-P9). RPWORLD provides rapid tooling service that applies to injection molding parts made of thermoplastic materials in chart stage P4-P7.
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Rapid Tooling Introduction
Ranging from a few parts to thousands of parts, the part quantity needed from an automobile company is varied at different development stages. Even more, most of the molds are one-off requirement, and the followings should be met: real materials (close or similar to materials used in mass production), high dimensional accuracy, and maximum reduction of 3D features. Therefore, RPWORLD launches rapid tooling service in responsive to the automotive customers’ requirements. Based on traditional tooling, RPWORLD’s rapid tooling is simplified as the following:
- Adopt cold runners, one mold for one part or multiple parts, reducing slightly the production efficiency;
- Materials of mold core is P20/#45/aluminium alloy, which will not be thermally treated, and even can be produced directly on mold base to create the one-piece part;
