3D KELTOOL The Keltool process is an advanced process of producing long-life soft tooling quickly and economically for prototype

and production runs from one to hundreds to even millions of plastic injection molded parts. The word "Keltool" refers to the proprietary powder metal sintering process, which involves infiltrating a fused metal part with copper alloy. This alloy fills in the voids in the otherwise porous material, producing a surface with the finish and hardness necessary for an injection mold. Company History: 3D Keltool is a powder metal process used to make injection-mold inserts and other durable tooling from master patterns. Keltool was originally developed by 3M in 1976 and was sold and further developed by Keltool Inc. In 1996, 3D Systems purchased the technology from Keltool Inc. and renamed it 3D Keltool. 3D Systems continued to develop and improve the process.

Process: In the 3D Keltool process, a part is first designed using a computer-aided design (CAD) system. The CAD's digital input is fed into a 3D Systems prototyping system, which accurately creates a solid master pattern. The 3D Keltool process typically starts with a CAD design of the core and cavity, followed by creation of the core and cavity patterns with stereolithography or some other rapid prototyping process. Once these core and cavity patterns have been finished to the desired surface, silicone rubber is cast against them to create molds into which a mixture of metal powder and binder is poured, packed, and cured. The metal mixture is finely powdered A6 tool steel and even finer particles of tungsten carbide. At this point, the cast core and cavity inserts exist in a green state. These green inserts are fired in a hydrogen-reduction furnace to burn away the binder, sinter the metal particles, and infiltrate copper into the inserts. This produces solid metal inserts that are approximately 70% steel and 30% copper, with physical properties similar to that of P20 tool steel. These

properties allow the inserts to withstand molding pressures of 138 to 172 MPa (20,000 to 25,000 psi). The inserts are finish machined, drilled for ejector pins, and fitted into mold bases. The finished Keltool part has the hardness of a A6 Tool Steel and can be machined like a traditional hard tool. 3D Keltool offers excellent detail reproducibility and can replicate features as small as 0.04 mm (0.0016 inch).The process is accurate to within 0.2%, with an additional 0.1% on the first 25 mm (1 inch). Flatness of the process is 0.025 mm per 25 mm (0.001 inch per inch).

For many intricately detailed parts, the 3D Keltool process can produce durable tooling inserts more quickly and inexpensively than traditional methods using cutting tools and electrical discharge machining (EDM). Tool Life Expectancies: 100,000 to 10,000,000 shots depending on material. Accuracy: The accuracy of Keltool is a function of the master pattern incorporating the appropriate shrinkages for the pattern itself, the silicone mold, Keltool process, and the thermoplastic material. Accuracies are typically 0.005 to 0.015 inches. Size Limitations: The Keltool part (mold) is limited to 6 inches in all directions. Therefore, any parts produced would be limited to about 4 inches in all directions. Application: Products are used by a wide range of companies in the automotive, aerospace, medical, electronic and consumer products industries.

Advantages: The tools from this process show very good definition and surface finish. Lead-time is typically shorter than conventionally produced tooling. Increase moldmaker productivity by 2x Lower moldmaking costs 25-40% Accelerate mold deliveries Increase production capacity Reduce cycle time by 30% or more 1,000,000+ shots possible Proven with a wide variety of materials Ideal for injection molding and die casting Disadvantage: Size limitation. The maximum size of a mold insert is 150 x 215 x 100 mm (5.9 x 8.5 x 4 inches).