**Abstract**

In the last decade, customized design and small series production gained importance in various industries. The production of these special tools becomes one of the most important costs for the production process. With the advances in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, tools can be produced efficiently in short lead times and costs with additive manufacturing. In this chapter, first, an overview on the additive technologies to produces tools, also called rapid tooling, will be given. The advantages as well as disadvantages will be discussed. Following that, on an example of metal forming tools, different materials coupled with different additive production techniques will be compared. Also, most important points will be highlighted to select the most appropriate tool material and manufacturing method. Finally, a methodology to identify the tool life will be suggested, and its validation and verification on a simplified deep drawing geometry will be depicted. The comparison of numerical prediction and experimental results are shown to be in good agreement.

**Keywords:** rapid tooling, tool design, additive manufacturing, sheet metal forming tools, tool life prediction

#### **1. Introduction**

In this section, first of all the history and the literature data of the rapid tooling will be mentioned. Then, the AM using methods of rapid tooling will be explained in detail. Finally, examples to be taken into consideration when making the tool will be given basic flow chart of the processes can be seen in **Figure 1**.

AM techniques for tool production (known in literature rapid tooling [RT]) provide efficiency in terms of time and cost, while RT is often the best known manufacturing method for complicated structures in low numbers [2]. AM techniques for manufacturing, prototyping, and tool production methods can also allow producers to manufacture high-quality elements in a short period [3, 4]. In today's world, with the technology advancing rapidly, companies are looking for ways to manufacture varied and complicated items with high quality while reducing the cost and time needed [5].

AM techniques for tool production defines a method resulting from mixing AM techniques for prototyping with standard tooling disciplines to produce a die rapidly or components of a functional model from CAD information at a reduced cost and in less time than conventional machining methods.

**Figure 1.**

*Data transfer between the computer-aided design (CAD) and the RP system [1].*
