The path from idea to finished product should be maximally short. To respond quickly to the market demand by the release of quality products – means to ensure the company with competitive advantages and sustained success.

In the process of developing new products it is always a need in test samples or in the so-called “models-prototypes” of the product, its individual components.

Models- prototypes are necessary for different services of companies:

- Marketing and advertising services can effectively carry out researches of the market, demonstrating to customers and clients the samples of the developed products, as well as use them in advertising campaigns;

- Designers and constructors can easily assess the options of the appearance, ergonomics of the developed products, check collection and functionality of design, introducing the necessary changes before the launch of products into production;

- Technologists can use them as master patterns for the manufacture of traditional industrial equipment (in particular, casting), as well as technologies of rapid making the experimental batches (e.g., using silicone molds, or by spraying metal);

- Patent office receives the advantage in time for registration of patents for new developments, etc.

Prototypes are made in different ways: in some enterprises parts are milled from plastic, soft metal or wood on CNC machines, others – rely on the magical hands of skilled craftsmen-modelers. But all these methods require the use of production facilities, the use of highly skilled manual labor and, as a rule, time-consuming. Now there is another opportunity to quickly, efficiently and inexpensively produce models of new products, their components and parts – this is rapid prototyping technologies.

Rapid Prototyping (RP) – is a layer by layer building a physical model (prototype) in accordance with the geometry of the CAD-model. The main difference between this technology and traditional methods of production models is that the model has been created not by separating the material from the work piece, but by incremental layering of the material that is a component of the model, including its constituent inner and even moving parts. The models made by RP can be made of various materials (depending on the technology used in the equipment): plastic, liquid resin, special powders, various sheet materials (paper, aluminum, etc.). The building process is largely automated and can obtain high quality and relatively inexpensive model, spending on their production hours, not days and weeks, as it was when using traditional methods.

The technologies providing such unique opportunities were immediately in demand and have been embraced by many industries. Application of rapid prototyping has provided them with significant savings of time and money spent on the preparation of new products to the production, thereby significantly reducing the time and cost of design and construction work, the work on manufacturing tooling, as well as with improving the quality of their products.

Have you ever faced the problem when you want to present your design but there is no model? Then for sure you require rapid prototyping. Moreover this technology can be of great use for marketing while the goods has not been produced yet. Interesting? Check out this cheap rapid prototyping site.

This rapid prototyping methodology is a powerful tool today. Take advantage of it to investigate products, their advantages and disadvantages. Also keep in mind that current Internet technologies give you a unique chance to try and to find anything you might want. Should you want to keep track of new publications on the subject.

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