Soft tooling processes use flexible polymeric materials to manufacture moulds. However, the malleable materials used for soft tooling, such as silicone rubber, have low thermal conductivities and take an extensive amount of time to cool. In this study, metallic (Aluminum fine powder, grey iron, copper, magnesium, titanium, zinc) and non-metallic (graphite, silicone, glass) thermally conductive filler particles were added to silicone rubber to condense the cooling time of soft tooling ...
In the soft tooling process for making moulds, polyurethane is often used as a flexible mould material. The low thermal conductivity of polyurethane results in a long solidification time of the wax/plastic pattern produced in the soft tooling process. In an effort to address this issue, the authors of this article have added highly conductive fillers to polyurethane. The fillers used for this study were aluminum fine powder and ...
