An experimental investigation on possibilities and limits of rubber pad forming combined with Selective Laser Melting produced tools, applied to sheet metal decorative embossing: Through this thesis it was enquired the possibility to use Selective Laser Melting (SLM) to produce tooling components for Rubber Pad Forming processes (RPF), for the production of sheet metal decorative embossing. The experimentation has foreseen the design of an elastoforming mold and seven different textured punches, used to produce 200 sheet metal tiles out of copper and brass. The seven textured punches where produced at “Sitec – Laboratorio per le Applicazioni Laser” of the Mechanical Department of Politecnico di Milano. Thermal treatments and postproduction machining of the punches were performed from the specialists of the tooling lab of Terenzi S.r.l – TGroup. For each texture the topography of the SLM surface and the respective embossed tiles were acquired, with the aim to quantify the loss of resolution (in terms of motifs quantity and surface dimensional accuracy) through the whole process, from the ideal design to the embossed surface.
Student:
Sergio Vezzani
Teachers:
Prof. Barbara Previtali
PhD Daniele Tamborini
Academic year:
2020/2021