For manufacturing companies, efficiency is undoubtedly the key to maintaining a competitive advantage. However, new ideas are inevitably realized by investing in expensive production processes, and it is a great risk for manufacturing companies if new ideas are rushed into production without being adequately created, tested, and refined. To solve this problem, manufacturing companies can put new ideas to the test through concept modeling and use functional prototyping for performance evaluation.
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The role of rapid prototyping manufacturing
Rapid prototyping quickly creates a physical part from its CAD model data by utilizing various manufacturing techniques. It is available for any part or sub-assembly during any phase of the product development cycle. During the design of a new product, prototyping can be repeated countless times using test data to achieve the desired part.
As rapid prototyping manufacturing does not need to go through the tooling design and production process and uses less costly materials, it can save a lot of time and money, giving designers more freedom to design their products and make the most of the product ideas in their minds for development and improvement. And with rapid prototyping manufacturing, the finished product is given the most realistic feedback through touch, feel and sight. This allows people to improve and refine the product and reduce the cost of errors. And to present ideas to colleagues, leaders, and customers as quickly as possible.
Insight into 7 most frequently rapid prototyping technologies
The selection of an appropriate rapid prototyping manufacturing technology is critical to the success of a prototype. Each rapid prototyping manufacturing technology has its own trade-offs in terms of cost, speed, functional material compatibility, and fidelity.
Let’s take a closer look at 7 of the most commonly used rapid manufacturing technologies.
- Stereolithography (SLA)
SLA uses a laser to solidify UV-curable resins to make parts from a pool of liquid resin. It best suits lower-end functional prototypes, patterns, molds, and production tools. SLA allows designers and engineers to prototype parts quickly with good surface finish and dimensional accuracy.
- Advantages :
Reasonably priced
The excellent surface finish
Proven technology, comprehensive choice of materials
- Disadvantages:
Low strength compared to other technologies, limiting some functional tests.
Resin can become brittle over time
Requires support structure, slower in speed
- Selective Laser Sintering(SLS)
SLS produces functional parts from polymer powders by sintering using a laser. Due to the internal porosity of SLS parts, they are brittle but have good tensile strength. In general, SLS has a large build volume and can generate parts with highly complex geometries and produce durable prototypes.
The technology’s low cost per part, high productivity, and proven materials make it suitable for a wide range of applications, from rapid prototyping manufacturing to small-batch manufacturing.
- Advantages:
Durable and highly accurate
No support structure required
Suitable for dyeing and coloring
- Disadvantages:
Rough, grainy surface
Limited choice of resin materials
Porous and brittle structure
- Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS)
DMLS involves the melting and fusing metal powder layers using a high-power laser beam. Most alloys can be used for DMLS to make prototypes into full-strength, functional hardware produced from the same material as the production part.
- Advantages:
Wide range of metal alloys
Excellent material properties
Produce the forms and features that are difficult to achieve with conventional CNC machining
- Disadvantages:
One of the slowest technologies
Expensive
- Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
FDM creates 3D parts by melting and extruding thermoplastic resin layer by layer onto a Build platform, then allowing it to re-solidify.
Because of their ability to print in recognized polymers and composites, FDM printers offer advantages in producing strong, usable, long-lasting parts.
- Advantages:
Fairly inexpensive compared to SLA and SLS
Complex-shaped parts can be produced
Prototype parts made from thermoplastic resins
- Disadvantages:
Poor surface finish – Ripple effect due to delamination
Low strength in the Z-axis due to delamination
Limited suitability for functional testing
- Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)
Managed by MJF, a powder bed melt 3D printing technology, the melt binds powdered materials together and then melts them to produce 3D parts. MJF can print high-precision and durable rigid parts using nylon PA11, nylon PA12, and PP, and it can also print flexible TPU parts.
- Advantages:
One of the fastest 3D printing
No support structure as it is a powder bed
Good surface finish and mechanical and physical properties
- Disadvantages:
Limited choice of materials
The surface finish is rougher than SLA and Polyjet
Expensive equipment costs may lead to higher part costs
- Binder Jetting
Binder jetting allows the production of metal and colored plastic parts. It is very cheap to manufacture metal prototypes with them compared to DMLS. In binder jetting, the binder is selectively deposited into a bed of powder, where it solidifies to create a 3D part.
They can be used to prototype full-size components as models for testing user interaction.
- Advantages:
Fairly inexpensive
Faster process
Both metals and plastics can be used
- Disadvantages:
Rough surface finish
Not suitable for functional testing, low strength
Limited choice of materials
- Poly Jetting
Polyjet 3D printing is a material jetting technology that produces smooth and precise parts. The technology uses a photopolymer created by spraying onto a build platform and curing it using UV light to create the part.
Surface textures, colors, and properties are essential for concept models and fully assembled prototypes to test user operation.
- Advantages:
Reasonable printing costs
It is possible to print thin-walled and complex geometries
Both rigid and flexible materials can be built on the same part
- Disadvantages:
Low strength
Not suitable for functional parts or testing
Not suitable for outdoor use or testing
Get rapid prototyping support from Huapin.
This article has been written to help people use 3D printing technology to enhance the company’s rapid prototyping process. If anyone is looking for professional rapid prototyping and mass production services, contact Huapin for an exclusive and dedicated solution.
