Released on June 16, 2009

Quickparts, Atlanta, a provider of custom designed rapid prototypes and production parts, announced it will begin offering metal castings through the plaster molding process, in addition to its other manufacturing methods.

Quickparts serves engineers and designers who want to create plastic and metal parts from 3-D CAD models. In the past, the company offered products through the SLA, SLS, FDM and PolyJet additive rapid prototyping methods, as well as urethane casting, injection molding, sheet metal forming and CNC machining.

Rapid prototyping is often used with plaster molding metalcasting processes to circumvent or transition to the production of hard tooling. This is accomplished by creating a rubber mold from a prototype-generated pattern. The rubber mold then is used to create plaster molds for casting production. Plaster casting often serves as a precursor to diecasting production while the hard tool is being made.

“Understanding metalcasting fundamentals will aid product designers in making design decisions early in the product development process that can have the maximum effect on cost reduction and performance improvement,” said Ron Hollis, Quickparts CEO and president.