On the use of SLS tools in sheet metal stamping

A few rapid tooling technologies have been recently proposed and among them Selective Laser Sintering is probably one of the most relevant and promising. In the paper, the authors report some results of a wide experimental research on the application of SLS tools in sheet metal forming. A wear test was carried out to investigate the progressive degradation of laser-sintered materials in comparison with traditional cold-work steels. In particular SLS tools were utilized in a sheet metal stamping process of S-shaped parts: their performances (in terms of tool wear and dimensional quality of the stamped part) were compared with the ones of traditional tools.