Will fabricators provide the accuracy needed by toolmakers?

Several manufacturers of rapid prototyping (RP) fabricators are aiming at enhancing their systems to produce master patterns suitable for production tooling for injection molding of polymers, ceramics, and powdered metals. In discussions with a cross section of tool makers, the requirement for the master pattern accuracy for injection molding tools is most often stated as 0.1%. How does the current state-of-the-art in rapid fabricators compare with this requirement? Where will rapid fabricator accuracy be in the next two to three years. This paper attempts to answer those questions.