Spin casting characterization: An experimental approach for the definition of runners design guidelines

The present attention to production cost and time reduction has encouraged many factories to employ some non-conventional technologies instead of the conventional ones for mould production. These specific non-conventional manufacturing technologies, aimed at achieving a significant time reduction for tools manufacturing, are commonly called rapid tooling techniques. Among these rapid tooling methodologies, it is possible to find one of the most direct and flexible techniques which enables, by using a non-cured silicone, the manual shaping of a physical object obtaining directly the mould after some additional handmade refinements. In order to know how the process parameters influence the final shape of the cast object, this work develops an experimental analysis for the estimation of a preliminary model for the process characterization.