Technology

In design and prototyping, what is meant by "soft tooled" parts?

I know what rapid protoyping is but have heard reference to "soft tooled" parts, and don't know what it means! Any help appreciated. Nez

Public Comments

1. I'm not exactly sure but here goes... Soft tooled vs Hard tooled Soft tooled, I think, means produced by general machines in a small (experimental?) environment. Hard tooled means produced on dedicated machines in a manufacturing environment.
2. Soft tooling is sets of tools or dies that allow items to be manufactured. In early stages of a products life, the manufacturer may go for a cheaper tooling option and have soft tools made. These tools will product the product precisely but will not have a long life. For long life tools they need to be "hard " tools or dies