CASTTOOLTM prototyping for injection molding, where is it going?

CASTTOOL^TM from Metalcast Engineering has significantly reduced the leadtimes of product development cycles for plastic injection molded parts. Hundreds of tools and thousands of parts are manufactured by this process every year. This is a very important tool for engineers in the development cycle and compliments other Rapid Prototyping technologies. How did we get to this point? Where do we go from here? Customers are asking for more quantity and a lower price than a prototype mold will produce. Can we automate our molds? Can we run tens-of-thousands of parts? The answer to these questions is for the most part, unknown at this point. This paper will show what we have done to date and where we are headed in the short term