If you're designing and engineering a product, you may start with blueprints and drawings or other plans, but typically you need to eventually create a prototype to present to manufacturers and investors. A prototype is also needed to perform initial tests on a product so that designers and engineers know where changes need to be made, either for better performance or for safety or other factors.
Rapid prototyping means creating a prototype of your product quickly, using various methods. This can help your production process as you can have a basic prototype as soon as possible, so that it then becomes available to engineers for changes and to investors who may then supply funds to see it produced, once they can see the prototype developed. Consider some methods of rapid prototyping for your product development.
1. Using 3-D printing
Three-dimensional or 3-D printing has become very popular as of late; this is a method of prototyping that puts very thin layers of two-dimensional printing over one another until a three-dimensional model is formed. This process requires special printers that work in a complete 360-degree angle and not just on flat paper, like your desktop printer.
Using three-dimensional printing can allow engineers and designers to see how a particular product will look when created so that sizes and dimensions can be adjusted. While the three-dimensional printing will not create actual models with certain materials such as metal or plastic, it allows for adjustments to be made that might otherwise be overlooked when working from a flat drawing or blueprint.
2. Using quick cast systems
A quick cast system is used to create a cast or mold of a product with silicone or injected plastic. This cast or mold has the advantage of producing a prototype in three dimensions with exacting details and specifications. Like three-dimensional printing, it allows a product to be seen from all angles so that changes can be made to sizes and dimensions and to other small details.
Because quick cast systems use only plastic for their molds, they can be created quickly and easily by a prototype shop. There is no need to worry about pouring molten metal or combining other products with a quick cast system; the end result is simply a plastic prototype of a product that can then be used by engineers and designers to see where changes can be made.
Consider these forms of rapid prototyping for your product development, to create the model you need quickly and easily.
Share11 December 2014
My name is Katie Langer. For a long time, I was bed ridden and I felt like I had no control over my life. I simply went along with what was instructed by my doctor and I didn't ask questions. It wasn't that my doctor wasn't willing to work with me, but I preferred to simply not think about the illness I was suffering from. I didn't realize that some of the symptoms I was suffering from were side effects of my medication and were not normal. After communicating more with my doctor, I was able to alleviate my symptoms. Since then, I've taken an interest in patient-doctor relationships and how to improve them.
