Systems and methods for mold creation

A method for creating a mold for use in molding a surface of a component, the method comprising:

• creating digital representations of a plurality of building blocks;
• assigning the digital representations of the plurality of building blocks to a plurality of additive manufacturing machines, the additive manufacturing machines being distributed at spaced apart locations across a geographic area and belonging to different manufacturers;
• constructing each of the building blocks using the additive manufacturing machine to which the respective digital representation was assigned;
• shipping at least some of the building blocks from the locations of the respective additive manufacturing machines to a single location geographically spaced from said locations of the respective additive manufacturing machines;
• and
• assembling the building blocks together to form the mold at the single location.

A method for creating a mold for use in molding a surface of a component, the method comprising:

• receiving a three-dimensional component model of at least the surface of the component;
• creating, via at least one processor, a three-dimensional mold model of a mold having a mold surface that is a negative of the surface of the component;
• dividing, via the at least one processor, the three-dimensional mold model into a plurality of three-dimensional building block models, each three-dimensional building block model corresponding to a respective portion of the three-dimensional mold model;
• configuring each of the three-dimensional block models to include a representation of an interior void and at least one port in communication with the interior void opening through a surface of the three-dimensional block models;
• additively manufacturing a building block for each three-dimensional building block model, wherein said additively manufacturing comprises additively manufacturing each building block to include an interior void and at least one port corresponding with the representation of the respective three-dimensional building block model;
• and
• coupling the additively manufactured building blocks together to form the mold and such that at least one port of each building block aligns with the port of another building block.