Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping methods are developing quickly and steadily and have progressed from being tools for fast product development to becoming tools for fast product formation. The entire product formation process comprising product development, development of production facilities, and production itself is therefore considered here. Nevertheless, the early stages of product development have special signlficance for the success of a product in the market. Ths chapter discusses the reason for this, why certain methods help to optimize this process, the role models play, and the special role of rapid prototyping in this process.

Industnal rapid prototyping systems on the market today are subject to a high development speed. New processes still in the laboratory stage or under development today will break into the market. At the same time, well tried and tested systems will be upgraded within a relatively short time.

On the basis of the fundamental physical processes, in a little more than 15 years after the presentation of the first prototyper, more than 30 industrially useable prototypers for the direct computer-supported manufacturing of physical models have been developed.

This chapter is understandable on its own, provided a basic knowledge exists, thereby enabling a quick approach to the subject. Repetitions are unavoidable because of the nature of ths concept, but these are kept to a minimum.

The use of the prototypers described in Chapter 3 that are suitable for the optimization of product development are illustrated in this chapter by means of specially chosen examples. The examples concentrate on hlghlighting the advantages that can be achieved by employing rapid prototyping. The processes themselves remain more or less in the background. It cannot be assumed therefore that one process would in general be better suited than the others based on the type of process mentioned or the number of times it is mentioned in the examples.

Providing clients with rapid prototyping models basically means selling time. If the client had time enough he would order it in some low-wage countries. Economic therefore equates to time saving.

The speed with which rapid prototyping models have been devuped from limited demonstration models to functional parts and preseries tool inserts has been breathtaking. The objective of making the transition from the prototype to the component, that is, from the prototype tool to the production tool, or, very generally, from the prototype process to the production process, has not yet been achleved. Since, from the rapid prototyping point of view, conventional processes are also being constantly developed further (see, e.g., the HSC process, Section 3.3.7.1) the objective recedes into the distance. Intensive research and development in industry, universities, and associations, however, have closed the gap slowly. This chapter shows with some examples which problems are being worked on and which solutions are favored.