Rapid Prototyping Manufacturing

The special of metal prototyping need that motivates the variety of rapid prototyping technologies arises because product designers would like to have a physical model of a new part or product design rather than a computer model or line drawing. The creation of a prototype is an integral step in the design procedure. Available rapid prototyping technologies for metal prototyping can be divided into two basic categories: (1) Material removal processes. (2) Material addition processes. The material removal RP alternative involves machining, primarily milling and drilling, using a dedicated Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine that is available to the design department on short notice. To use CNC, a part program must be prepared from the CAD model The starting material is often a solid block of wax, which is very easy to machine, and the part and chips can be melted and resolidified for reuse when the current prototype is no longer needed. Other starting materials ca...

CNC machining and 3D-printing (SLA or SLS) are the main methods of producing Prototypes  and commercial products when the weight of the initial stock and the final product are different. The part creation principle, however, completely opposite. It is important to understand the differences between them in order to be able to choose the required method to produce your own sla prototype correctly.  CNC Machining and its benefits   CNC machining is the oldest of the three methods and the only subtractive one. It means that the mass of the stock gets lower as its condition gets closer to the final part. The material is removed from the stock material by using different cutting tools that move according to a CNC program.  The most widespread machining centers feature turning or milling as the main machining methods and if the precision of the part is high, grinding and polishing will get you the desired results in tolerance and surface finish. CNC mach...

Nowadays plastic parts play a very important role in the modern industry. More than 60% of products have some or even most parts that are made of different polymers. Injectionmolding is the most widespread method of manufacturing plastic parts due to a number of factors: it provides the best surface finish, you can manufacture parts consisting of complex surfaces, you can make very thin structures, and most importantly, one mold provides you about 500,000-1,000,000 identical plastic parts. However, molding has its disadvantages too, one of those being a large lead time. Creating a mold is a whole complex project by itself that is why its use, for example, for Prototyping is limited. Modern mold technology research has been moving in that direction to lower the lead time of the molded products, increase the process speed and part quality and make molding useful for small-quantity manufacturing. Modern mold making technologies and trends   Mold making is a manufacturi...

Injection molding is a common method for production and is commonly most popular over different processes, given its capability to economically create complicated components to tight tolerances. Before any components will be wrought, however, an appropriate injection mold should be designed, factory-made, and commissioned. The mold style directly determines the wrought half quality and molding productivity. The injection mold is itself a fancy system comprised of multiple components that area unit subjected to several cycles of temperature and stress. There are often trade-offs in mold style, with lower-cost molds generally leading to lower product quality or inefficient molding processes . Engineers ought to try to style injection molds that area unit “fit for purpose”, which suggests that the mold ought to produce elements of acceptable quality with token lifecycle value whereas taking a minimum quantity of your time, money, and risk to develop. What is injection...

Why is Industrial design important? 1.     We live in an era of consumption where supply is so vast and differentiated that you can easily find two identical products if you judge by their specifications. That is where Industrial Design comes on stage. When technical parameters are really close, people start choosing the product that suits their tastes better, feels better, has better proportions and so on. That is even more viable when we talk about gadgets and appliances.  Well, for some people, design is even more important than technical parameters. That is why industrial design plays a large role in product success or, unfortunately, failure.   Prototyping for industrial design Development of digital technologies in the recent decade has considerably lowered the popularity of prototyping for industrial design. And really, why bother, when you can create the whole part or even the assembly on your PC without the need to cooperate and orde...

Plastic as an industrial material has first appeared in our lives in the 1800s, when first Industrial Revolutions began to happen. Due to its convenience, it has rapidly spread and developed. Nowadays, we do not spend a single day without touching or using something made of plastic. Same things can be said about designing or manufacturing any product. You will definitely have parts that are made of plastic. Some product prototypes are wholly machined from a solid piece of plastic due to the fact that it is softer than metal and thus can be machined faster. That is why it is really worth it to know some nuances about plastic machining.   Things you have to know about machining plastics Plastics are valued because they have a bunch of useful properties: they are very lightweight, they are good insulators, they have a really good corrosion resistance, good surface finish is easily obtainable with them. That is the reason why they are so important in modern-day industry. ...