Gone are the days of science fiction films that served as human’s escapism to believing that a human mind can achieve so much more. With more focus on making those movies a reality, there has been a significant attention in ensuring that technology keeps up with the expectations. One such technology is rapid prototyping. In layman’s term rapid prototyping or RP is used to create a part or the whole products’ three-dimensional model using the CAD (Computer Aided Design) data. It can also be used to measure the precision and accuracy rate of a commodity or its part before the mass manufacturing takes place. With a huge market ahead in rapid prototyping china has been actively investing in the technology while simultaneously providing other services within the framework.
The whole process of testing is to get the basic idea of the shape and design of the product which could be modified accordingly to meet the demand. The strength and endurance level cannot be checked as the final product may be built of a different material.
In the modern world, the prototypes can be created through DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) or 3-D printing techniques. The technology can also be used in network design. It is beneficial in outlining the design for a new network. Some rapid prototyping tools permit the user to swiftly built, communicate with, modify and share with an SDN(Software-Designed Network) prototype on a system that can run a network topology.
Reasons for choosing RP
Rapid Prototyping can help the user in a number of ways by providing advantages.
- Effective communication is increased
- Reduction of development time as the rectification in the product are made during the initial processes.
- Costly Mistakes are reduced. This is achieved by making sure that each department involved within the company has a look at the product to give apt feedback that can be acted upon to ensure the product is as per the need of the client.
- Decreases the engineering changes that sustain
- The overall lifespan of the commodity increases as the required features are added and the unnecessary ones are taken away.
Methods used in Rapid Prototyping –
The following procedures are to adhere to the fulfillment of the entire process –
- A model is to be developed on CAD. Then, it has to be converted to a file with ‘.stl’ extension.
- The RP tool creates layers of the model in the STL format.
- First, the primary layer of the model will be created. It is then lowered by the width of the following layer. This method continues to a level where the entire model is completed.
- Any supports are then taken away with the following up of cleaning of the surface of the model.
The procedure seems simple. The technology is not. The benefits, however, are in huge numbers with profits being aimed at through smaller investment. This is an advancement that tackles the problem before it even arises and therefore, is an important part of the manufacturing industry.