It is a fast way of manufacturing products with intricate designs. How does it help your manufacturing setup?
Rapid prototyping is a set of manufacturing processes that cut down on production time or costs of products with complex and intricate designs. If you are in the manufacturing business involving fast turn-around times, smaller batches and requiring some amount of accuracy, you need to rapid prototype.
RP processes depend on 3D CAD (computer-aided design) models of the product to manufacture the prototype. 2D blueprints or drawings of the object are converted into 3D CAD models and fed into RP machines.
The nomenclature may be somewhat misleading, for rapid prototyping is not as rapid as it sounds. It just happens to be much faster than traditional manufacturing processes. Producing a design prototype through RP may take anywhere between a day and a week, depending on the material, machine used and design complexities. The earlier myth associated with RP as to a perceived higher manufacturing cost is melting away fast. As a matter of fact, RP cuts down on material wastage and hence costs, by increasing accuracy and reducing the reworking frequency. Hence, RP
is now fast becoming a part of a greater manufacturing philosophy—rapid manufacturing (RM).
| Where is it used? |
| Watch industry, automotive precision assemblies, lifestyle products, jewelry and shoe industry, consumer durables and packaging, medical industry and telecom |
Where is RP used?
RP evolved primarily as the means for concept modeling and design verification. This was because of the faster turn-around times along with the dimensional accuracy achieved in the prototype. Over time, it was used to conduct validation of, what is known in manufacturing jargon as, fit, form and function. It has come a long way from validation to batch-production. In the present day, it is used in diverse manufacturing sectors, ranging from watches, automotive precision assemblies, lifestyle products, jewelry and shoe industry, consumer durables and packaging to medical equipment industry and telecom.
| Methodology |
| The basic methodology for all current rapid prototyping techniques can be summarized as follows: 1. 3D CAD models made from 2D blueprints, then converted to STL or other compatible formats 2. RP machine processes the converted files (usually by creating sliced layers of the model) 3. Physical prototype created layer by layer 4. Supports, if any, are removed 5. Prototype surface cleaned off residual stock material (powder, liquid, etc.) |
How does it work?
At one end is the design software and on the other is an automated machine. The design software could be any of the regular CAD software used by manufacturing firms. The most popular are ProE, SolidWorks, Catia, etc. The interface used for communication between the two is STL, an interface associated with Stereolithography—one of the early RP techniques. Developed by 3D Systems, an RP services firm based in the US, Stereolithography still remains a much favored choice amongst manufacturers and RP service providers.
The CAD models of the product to be prototyped are converted into the .STL format, which in simpler words, means that the surfaces of the CAD model are triangulated and are expressed in the form of these triangles with respect to the corresponding axes and vertices. ProE, SolidWorks, etc., are also used extensively. The automated machine to be used depends on the RP technique that is being employed. The earliest RP technique was, of course, Stereolithography, the process of making structural and design changes in light-prone epoxy resins using laser beams. Later came in processes such as selective laser sintering (SLS), laminated object molding (LOM), fused deposition modeling (FDM), etc. All these processes have been collectively termed as solid freeform fabrication (SFF).
The processes used are mostly additive. It means that the final prototype is constructed from simple stock materials such as powder, sheet, gas or liquids, through layered manufacturing. The prototype is constructed layer by layer using high-energy beams to either fuse the material together or cut through that what is not required. Certain RP processes do not use energy beams, relying simply on binders and a piston to bring pressure on consecutive layers to bind them together.
Who ought to RP?
RP processes score mostly on three counts on a case-to-case basis: production time, production costs and accuracy. It’s not necessary that you will benefit on all three counts at the same time. The scoring is on a case-to-case basis, as in most cases RP is pitted against several other competing technologies depending on the requirements of the manufacturers.
| Advantages |
| 1. Faster 2. Used for manufacturing complex designs 3. Useful in industries prone to shorter product life-cycles |
Say a valve manufacturer, XYZ, wants to launch 2,000 units of a new kind of valve before the year-end. RP might cost it a little more than the traditional tooling methods, but it will cut down on production time and will provide the required accuracy. Hence, XYZ cuts down the time-to-market delay and saves on the possible corresponding losses in business that would have occurred on account of the delay. Take another case, that of an irrigation equipment manufacturer, ABC, who produces pipes of different dimensions. ABC requires pipes in high volumes and the dimensional tolerances might be higher than in the case of valves. In this case, RP is not the right tooling method.
As already mentioned, RP is hence appropriate for products with complex designs, possessing short design cycles and produced in smaller batches with reasonable accuracy. With the upswing in the number of manufacturing startups in the country providing diverse products with equally diverse designs, it is imperative that they are on their toes design-wise. For, in the fast-driven markets of today, shelf lives of products are getting shorter and shorter, spelling out the need for techniques that will reduce manufacturing times and yet come out with products with complex designs and acceptable quality and accuracy.
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