Advances in 3D laser processing in mold technology

Texturing of molds is a normal technique to give plastic products a surface shape which replicates the appearance of leather, wood or similar. Often the decorative features have been done by EDM processing or photochemical etching; both processes which present problems in production times and flexibility. EDM processing requires a numerous set of machined erosion electrodes. Changes to the geometries require production of new electrodes and the process is not flexible. The down side to photochemical etching is the use of chemicals, it is not repeatable and usually it’s not done in-house therefore the delivery cycle is usually too long.
Laser engraving has found many applications in production of injection molds. To replace e.g. photochemical etching in decorative texturing applications, the laser as a tool needs to be able to process true 3D surfaces accurately and with high quality. In order to meet these requirements, developments in software and CAM-interfaces are needed. In this paper a method for creating decorative textures on 3D surfaces, starting from image mapping and texture synthesis, to real processed samples, is presented. It has been shown that new innovative techniques enable 3D-processing which by quality and flexibility challenge the conventional processes.