Laminated tooling by multiple laser processing

The rapid manufacturing of large metal forming tools, for car body parts for exa mple, is a novel and promising application of the Metal-LOM (Laminated Object Ma nufacturing) technique. In early 1997, a special machining centre was installed at the Toyota Technological Institute for the manufacture of forming tools by th is technique, with the principal objectives of reducing the time and cost of wha t is traditionally a time-consuming process. The machining centre is a laser-int egrated 5-axes CNC milling centre. It incorporates a Nd:YAG laser for cutting or welding and an metal sheet loader for automating the rapid tooling of large car body parts.