Integration of Additive Manufacturing and Vacuum Casting in the Development of Rapid Prototyping Complex Parts - Safety Glasses Case Study

This paper presents the possibility of integration of modern techniques of additive manufacturing and vacuum casting in the rapid manufacturing of complex parts. The research was conducted on the rapid development of safety glasses in the Laboratory for Plasticity at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Banja Luka. The prototype of safety glasses was directly developed from a CAD model which is used as a main model for making molds in a vacuum casting process. The development stages which include additive production of glasses and the process of vacuum casting with the definition of material components, preheating temperature, the forming of silicone mold, the casting process, hardening and other parameters are presented in this paper. It is proved that by using this technique it is possible to produce complex functional parts quickly, with high precision, accuracy and surface quality, while significantly reducing costs of development and production comparing to other similar technologies.