The design and fabrication of tools for §manufacturing represents one of the most time §consuming and costly phases in the development of §new products. To reduce the time and cost of the §product development and manufacturing processes, the §new technologies of Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Rapid §Tooling (RT), which have been developed over the §last two decades, offer the potential to completely §revolutionize the process of manufacturing. Profiled §Edge Laminae (PEL) tooling is a promising laminated §tooling method involving the assembly of an array of §laminations whose top edges are simultaneously §profiled and beveled based on a CAD model of the §intended tool surface.A new advanced design process §for PEL Tooling is explained based on the tooling §fabrication process. This book includes the §advanced design process for PEL Tooling, i.e., the §required synthesis and analysis tools, and §methodologies for designing PEL tools. . The §advanced PEL Tooling design process will allow §manufacturing engineers and tooling designers to §design a PEL tool, predict its structural and §thermal behavior, and optimize it before it must be §fabricated. schovat popis