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

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between process additive manufacturing and vacuum casting in the development of prototypes and their replicas of complex parts. This research was conducted on the rapid development of rhinoceros toy figure in the Laboratory for Plasticity at the University of Banja Luka. The paper aimed for an exploratory study the prototype and their replicas of rhinoceros toy figure directly from a CAD model which is making by additive manufacturing and their replicas by using vacuum casting process. The paper provides the empirical insights about of CAD model and additive manufacturing which include Fused Deposition Molding (FDM) 3D printing and process vacuum casting. Practical implications are analysis the role of 3D printing in development prototypes and definition of vacuum casting process. The value of this paper is to prove that is possible to produce complex functional parts smaller series quickly with high precision, accuracy and surface quality, while significantly reducing costs of development and production comparing to other similar technologies.