Rapid manufacturing moulds by plasma arc spraying is a new kind of plasma arc machining technology. This technology has many advantages. An experimental apparatus has been set up. The influence of some special factors on the surface quality of work moulds formed by plasma arc spraying have been analyzed and experimentally researched. The micro structure of the interface between master moulds and work moulds shows that work moulds copy geometrically master moulds very well after optimizing processing parameters. Some experimental samples by plasma arc spraying have been obtained. They show that the surface patterns of work moulds match with the ones of master molds very well.