Rapid prototyping – a technology transfer approach for development of rapid tooling

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply rapid prototyping (RP) philosophy as a technology transfer in industries to take its time and cost‐effective advantages for development of rapid tooling (RT).Design/methodology/approach – Experimentations are performed for development of RT for sand casting, investment casting and plastic moulding applications.Findings – This paper reports the procedures developed for manufacture of production tooling using RP. A cost/benefit model is developed to justify implementation of RP as a technology transfer in industries.Research limitations/implications – The examples are limited to parts build by fused deposition modelling RP process. However, the concepts experimented may be applied for other RP processes.Practical implications – RP has proved to be a cost‐effective and time‐efficient approach for development of RT, thereby ensuring possibility for technology transfer in casting as well as plastic industries.Originality/value – This is the pioneer attempt toward...