RAPID PROTOTYPING SUBSTITUTE MATERIAL PREPARATION AND APPLICATIONS IN CASTING PROCESS

In view of the expensive forming material used in printing rapid prototyping on the ZPrinter310 system produced by United States, which forming materials have zp102 gypsum-based powder and ZCast501direct metal casting material, a relatively cheap substitute material for forming prototyping was developed by using the three-way pipe as the research object. This substitute material has not only the property of zp102 gypsum-based powder which can be used in printing prototyping, but also has the property of ZCast501direct metal casting material which can be poured into metal solution. It is demonstrated experimentally that use this substitute material not only could form rapid prototyping, but also could form rapid tooling which could be poured into aluminum alloy solution about 700 square and get castings successfully. The cost of use this substitute material is only the 50% of zp102 gypsum-based powder cost, and decreased extensively the printing rapid prototyping cost in teaching experiments and developing new product in enterprise.