*2.2.10 Direct SL shell tooling*

Thin SL shells in shell tooling are applied to manufacture inserts reinforced by materials with high thermal conductivity like aluminum-filled epoxy. Therefore, higher mold strengths are attainable in contrast to those achieved by the direct AIM tooling technique, which builds a strong resin mold. Due to aluminum's increased conductivity, which offers faster cooling of mold, the cycle time gets shorter. To improve wear resistance, metal plate can be used to cover the outer surface brief advantages/disadvantages chart of direct methods is depicted in **Table 3** [12].
