Product category:
Fast prototyping equipment, pattern-making and services
News Release from: Huntsman Advanced Materials | Subject: RenTool tooling resins
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 May 2005
Casting system contributes to
award-winning car
Casting system has been used to build an Michelin- award winning model car designed to meet the demands of 21st century urban living in China and exhibited at the Detroit Car Show earlier this year.
Designed to meet the demands of 21st century urban living in China, the Xin Lang was one of five innovative car designs that were selected as winners of the Michelin Design Challenge 2004 - 'Car for China', and exhibited to great acclaim at the Detroit Car Show earlier this year Xin Lang was designed by the young Slovenian car designer Uro Pavasovi and made with RenTool tooling resins from Huntsman Advanced Materials, using a unique casting process known as 'Cliffhanger'
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Nov 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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Designed to produce oversize castings for automotive parts, the mould used for this process is 268cm long and 210cm wide and looks like a large needle bed.
It consists of a large number of adjustable wooden stamps or pins, which are put into position via CAD data and can be adjusted either upwards or downwards, i.e moulds can be either positive or negative.
The size of the mould allows for several full size parts to be cast simultaneously, such as a car roof, left-hand and right-hand doors and a front spoiler.
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As well as being able to cope with varied weather conditions an adhesively bonded joint in a front radiator grill and engine hood assembly had to be able to withstand 80degC during the paint cycle.
Thus, the complete Xin Ling scale model could be cast in a single shot using this system.
The Xin Lang model was produced by Rampf Services in Germany, using CATIA data supplied by Uro Pavasovi, which was then edited for process compatibility.
From this data, a 1500 x 500x 450mm solid block was cast using RenTool 5150 resin.
This block, weighing approximately 300kg, was then transported to Slovenia, where it was CNC machined to its final dimensions by Kovinoplastika.
Technical support for the project was provided by Huntsman Advanced Materials' distributor in Slovenia, Adipos, based in Ljubljana.
The model was then spray-coated twice after which a primer was applied.
Finally the model was painted with metallic automotive paint, producing a high quality gloss finish, ideal for public display.
This unique RenTool Casting Technology system provides considerable time and cost savings for customers because it uses less material and produces a smooth surface, which needs little finishing.
The mould production and mould set up are all CAD driven so customers can either enter their own data or RenShape solutions will execute data conversion as a service.
And, of course, it saves customers the expense of capital investment in their own casting machinery and equipment.
For further information on the new RenTool Casting Technology system, go to www.huntsman.com and click on Advanced Materials.
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