Patent ID: 11966666
Assignee: INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B | IPC B  G

Claim 18:
19. A method of reproducing an object, said method comprising:
designing at least one re-usable two-pieced flexible mold for the reproduction of the object, wherein designing comprises the following steps:
a) taking as an initial input (IN) a digital surface description (D) of the object to be reproduced, said input (IN) comprising a closed surface mesh (Mi) of the object to be reproduced, said initial closed surface mesh (Mi) being aligned with a surface of the object to be reproduced;
b) calculating the flexible mold by executing the following steps:
b1) separating the mesh into a number of connected surface patches (P1, P2), wherein each surface patch (P1, P2) is associated with a patch-individual parting direction and is selected either:
b1_1) based on an heuristic estimation of the effort for removal of each patch (P1, P2) from the flexible mold and wherein a design and number of patches (P1, P2) is selected based on a minimization algorithm; or
b1_2) based on a volume based calculation model, wherein a fictive volume enclosing the object to be reproduced is determined and wherein shortest paths from the surface of the mesh (Mi) to an outer boundary of the volume are determined for each point of the surface mesh (Mi), thus yielding potential extraction directions that are associated along the surface of the mesh (Mi), wherein the potential extraction directions are compared along the surface of mesh (Mi) and wherein the patches (P1, P2) are determined based on detected discontinuity of the potential extraction directions;

b2) calculating the flexible mold based on the surfaces patches (P1, P2) yielded in step b1), wherein the number of pieces of the flexible mold corresponds with the number of patches (P1, P2);

c) calculating a process of production of the flexible mold, wherein the calculation comprises a selection of either:
c_1) calculating a corresponding rigid metamold for casting the flexible mold yielded in step b); or
c_2) calculating a process for additively manufacturing the flexible mold; and

d) yielding a design of the flexible mold of step b) and a result of the calculation of the process of production according to step c) as an output (OUT);
producing the two-pieced flexible mold utilizing the design yielded as the output (OUT) in step (d);
filling a cavity defined by the two-pieced flexible mold with a flexible casting material;
forming the object from the flexible casting material within the filled cavity of the flexible mold; and
wherein the object or the corresponding cavity and the flexible mold is separated by at least one parting line (PL), wherein the at least one parting line (PL) is defined as at least one closed curve (C) in 3D space that is shaped when the two pieces of the flexible mold and the corresponding cavity or the object within the flexible mold meet one another, wherein the parting line (PL) is a curve that does not lie entirely within a single plane.