Study On The Technology Of Rapid Tooling Through The Combination Of Electroforming With Arc Spraying

In order to solve arc spraying zn-al alloy manufacture of mold have low surface hardness, wear resistance, easy generation pores and other defects in performance, need to make plating on the surface of the zn-al alloy, through electroplating in the mold surface for copper plating preparation. Making plating in the mold surface of the zn-al alloy for plating preparation, this paper uses two different experiment scheme. Scheme one, first spraying after plating, that is, first make the mold's die space by arc spraying, then in the mold's die space making plating, respectively electroless copper or electroless nickel in the mold's inside surface, Scheme two, first electroforming after spraying, that is, first make the mold by electroforming, then achieve the requests thickness by arc spraying in the mold surface.Observe zn-al alloy coating and copper plating and nickel plating's pores and inclusions by SEM, test microhardness of zn-al alloy coating and different plating, and test bonding strength of spray coating and copper plating. By contrast and analysis, scheme two adopts first electroforming after spraying process method, eliminate the mold surface defects, and make the mold's hardness, surface strength, surface smoothness and corrosion resistant capability have greatly improved.In scheme two, a technology of rapid tooling through the combination of electroforming with arc spraying, It has being a way of rapid tooling. Because the new rapid tooling not only can ensure the precision of mould primely, but also can shorten the mold-making period and reduce cost. Though electroformed molds are very precise, the quality of electrochemical deposit layer is influenced by many factors. Besides the electroforming time is long. So in this paper, the experiment oftechnics factors of electroformed copper was carried out. The main factor and the optimum parameters to archive the best properties of the electroformed layer of cooper were obtained.In order to validate conclusions of experiments above, the injection mold was fabricated by electroforming and arc spraying, Using these molds, plastic parts and foam patterns were produced. The conclusion show:through making copper coating in the mold surface, eliminate the mold surface defects, and make the mold's hardness, surface strength, surface smoothness and corrosion resistant capability have greatly improved.