Combining additive manufacturing and vacuum casting for an efficient manufacturing of safety glasses

This paper presents the possibility of integration of modern techniques of additive manufacturing and vacuum casting in the rapid manufacturing of complex parts. The prototype of safety glasses was directly developed from a CAD model, which is used as a main model for making moulds in a vacuum casting process. The development stages, which include additive production of glasses and the process of vacuum casting with the definition of material components, preheating temperature, the forming of silicone mould, the casting process, hardening and other parameters are presented in this paper. It is proved that by using this technique it is possible to produce complex functional parts quickly, with high precision, accuracy and surface quality, while significantly reducing costs of development and production compared to other similar technologies.