Durability of Vacuum Infusion Tooling Produced from Fused Granular Fabrication Additive Manufacturing

Fused Granular Fabrication Additive Manufacturing (FGF AM) has the capability to create tooling that is lower cost than conventionally manufactured tooling and still has sufficient properties for many applications. A vacuum infusion (VI) mold was printed from fiberglass-acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and evaluated for wear and suitability for small VI runs. The mold was designed to accentuate high wear as a "worst case" scenario. The mold was able to produce 10 parts successfully before any noticeable change occurred to the surface finish. By 14 parts, the surface finish had roughened sufficiently that demolding was difficult and resulted in damage to the part. Profilometry measurements showed a 7 × increase in roughness over the run. No significant tool wear or change in geometry was detected. Even longer life would be expected for typical tooling designs since the test mold was deliberately designed to accentuate wear and demolding issues. Based on these results, similar FGF molds are a feasible option for short run VI production for prototyping or low-volume composites manufacturing, possibly at lower cost and quicker turnaround time than machined aluminum molds.