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Engineering Patternmaking is a precision engineering-model making trade that
supplies a diverse area of the manufacturing industry with a range of tooling or pattern
equipment. This range includes timber, resin or metal patterns that are used to
form:
- sand moulds to make metal castings
- tooling to form vacuum formed plastic
products
- moulds for fibreglass products
- moulds for ceramic PC items
- visual, testing and prototype models or
models that are required for developing or forming engineering profiles or shapes.
Approximately 80 per cent of work carried
out in the patternmaking trade is making tooling from timber. The tradesperson must
be highly skilled, competent in the use of a variety of woodworking hand and power tools
and a range of woodworking machines. They must also be able to work with epoxy
resin, castable polyurethanes and a range of metals. Experienced Patternmakers also
have the ability to interpret engineering drawings and develop engineering shapes, work
accurately to fine tolerances and apply factors such as wood grain and contraction rates.
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