Making errors in manufacturing process can be a disaster to a factory. Substantial re-work will increase the cost and that can kill your factory, especially for small factory. To avoid making fatal errors, manufacturers should construct a conceptual design. The most effective way to construct a conceptual design is rapid prototyping (RP). This method allows you to build a prototype with minimal cost in a short time period. Unluckily, there is only 10% small companies have adopted rapid prototyping (RP). The following presents advantages of adoption of RP in depth.

What is RP?

RP makes virtual designs from CAD software, processes them by transforming them into cross sections, still virtual, and then forms or manufactures each cross section in physical space, one after the next until the model is finished. The appearance of prototypes is almost identical to the actual product.

Stereolithography is one of the more commonly used RP technologies. It is considered to provide high accuracy and good surface finish. It involves building plastic parts a layer at a time by tracing a laser beam on the surface of a vat of liquid photo-polymer. The photopolymer is solidified by the laser light. Once one layer is completely traced, it is lowered a small distance into the liquid and a subsequent layer is traced, adhering to the previous layer.

Benefits of RP

1. Time Reduction

In most cases, firms using RP technologies have gained time reductions in the production of prototype tooling and parts.

The figures for time reductions on prototyping vary greatly, ranging from 60 to 90%. On the whole this range is likely to be realistic given that the estimation of time savings, when compared to the conventional methods of prototyping, is a fairly straightforward matter.

2. Cost Reduction

RP allows firms to identify mistakes before commitments are made to expensive tooling, machines, and large scale manufacturing process. It is widely known that correcting errors at initial stage is much cost effective than correcting errors at later stages.

3. Innovation

For the reasons of short production cycle and relatively low cost, some firms are using RP in more innovative ways. Some examples include:

- Development of new analysis and testing procedures

- Manufacturing conceptual design of production tooling

- Improving communications across product divisions

- Supporting customised manufacturing

Conclusion:

RP provides designers, model makers, manufacturers and others with highly accurate prototype parts. Rapid prototype turnaround time is a proven way to reduce time to market. It can even reduce direct development costs.

The only drawback is the initial high capital investment for RP machines. One of the ways to eliminate this disadvantage is to employ a RP manufacturing service provider.