Rapid Prototyping Services

Description

Rapid prototyping services involve a technology called rapid prototyping, which is the automatic development of physical objects with the help of solid freeform fabrication. Initially, the techniques were used to produce prototype parts and models but now-a-days, they have wider applications, including the manufacture of production quality parts in small lots. Rapid prototyping makes use of virtual designs from animation modeling or computer aided design (CAD) software, converts them into slender, virtual, horizontal cross-sections and creates each and every cross-section in physical space. Today, rapid prototyping is entering into the field of rapid manufacturing, which most experts believe as a “next level” technology. Some of the technologies used in rapid prototype machine include selective laser sintering (SLS), laminated object manufacturing (LOM), 3D printing (3DP), fused deposition modeling (FDM) and electron beam melting (EBM). Some of the base materials used in making rapid prototype machines include thermoplastics, eutectic metals, paper, titanium alloys, photopolymer and metals powders.

Types

The types of rapid prototyping services are:

• Sterolithography (SLA)
• Laser sintering
• Casting

Advantages

The advantages of rapid prototyping services are:

• Increasing effective communication
• Decreasing delivery time
• Decreasing costly mistakes
• Minimizing sustaining engineering changes
• Increasing product variants
• Decreasing development time by facilitating corrections to be made in a product at the initial stage
• Extending product lifetime by incorporating necessary features and removing redundant features in the early stages of design
• Enhancing product development by facilitating better communication in a synchronized engineering environment

Applications

• Rapid prototyping services find applications in motor vehicles, business machines, academic fields, aerospace, consumer products, medical, government and military
• Sculptors utilize rapid prototyping services to fabricate intricate and complex shapes for display at art exhibitions
• Rapid prototyping services also find applications in prototyping, rapid manufacturing and rapid tooling