Porous mold for molded fiber part manufacturing and method for additive manufacturing of same

A porous mold comprising:

• a porous body made of a set of layers of material bonded together in a core fill pattern that facilitates fluid flow through the porous body, the porous body having:
• a frame;
• a mold core;
• wherein the frame is separated from the mold core by a non-porous wall, thereby preventing fluid flow between the frame and the mold core;
• wherein the mold core has a first section with a first surface that is a first plane and second section with a second surface that is a second plane, wherein the first plane and the second plane are non-parallel and have an angle between the first plane and the second plane from 15 to 90 degrees;
• wherein the core fill pattern of the first section of the mold core differs from the core fill pattern of the second section of the mold core based on the angle between the first plane and the second plane.

A method of making a porous mold using an additive manufacturing device, the method comprising:

• designing a part to be created from molded fiber;
• creating a mold model of a porous mold for forming at least a portion of the part out of molded fiber, the mold model including:
• an exterior surface that is a negative shape of the portion of the part;
• and
• an attachment surface for attaching the mold model to a molded fiber manufacturing device;
• generating a slicer file based on the mold model that can be interpreted by the additive manufacturing device to physically create the porous mold;
• executing the slicer file with the additive manufacturing device thereby printing the porous mold, the porous mold having:
• a porous body made of a set of layers of material bonded together in a core fill pattern that facilitates fluid flow through the porous body, the porous body having:
• a frame;
• a mold core;
• wherein the frame is separated from the mold core by a non-porous wall, thereby preventing fluid flow between the frame and the mold core;
• wherein the mold core has a first section with a first surface that is a first plane and second section with a second surface that is a second plane, wherein the first plane and the second plane are non-parallel and have an angle between the first plane and the second plane from 15 to 90 degrees;
• wherein the core fill pattern of the first section of the mold core differs from the core fill pattern of the second section of the mold core based on the angle between the first plane and the second plane;
• assembling the porous mold onto the molded fiber manufacturing device;
• and
• manufacturing the part with the molded fiber manufacturing device.