All posts filed under: Rapid Prototyping Industry

The Complexity of Rapid Prototyping

The complexity of the geometry required for rapid prototyping is fuzzy. The only things indisputable are limited cases. The choices for inexpensive CNC equipment are large. These machines use improved software and address the recent market for rapid prototyping. This equipment does require a basic knowledge of machining. When the end result has compound surfaces and complex curves additive technology is the obvious choice. This method may not work for the final material but will avoid complex set ups, calculations and numerous daunting tasks. If the part with an accurate reflection of the desired geometry is obtained, they are many different ways to change it into another material. Additive technologies are an excellent choice due to the complex shapes in the world. The majority of consumer products from shampoo bottles to automobile parts would be very hard to make without machine subtractive. Many items are hard to describe externally, internally and mathematically. A lot of parts have an odd shape making them difficult to machine. This is just as true for items such as jewelry, …

Comparing Open-Source and Low-cost 3D Printers with Commercial Products

When the typewriter was introduced in 1868, it was to people what virtual reality is to us now. It was something people had never seen before, a new idea that added value and made things a little more perfect. The typewriter created perfect typography, but one mistake meant the paper had to be re-written. The same is true today as more and more people learn how to use 3D printing and rapid prototyping. One over-looked mistake in the design of a piece can be fatal to a budget or to the project itself. For that reason, in this article we will discuss the implications and differences between open-source low-cost 3D printers, and commercial rapid prototyping machines. Open-Source Low-Cost 3D Printers Open-Source is the term given to software that is free to use and be edited by people other than the creator. This made a shift in the way that creators and 3D enthusiasts create objects. Imagine if the software was not open-sourced, what would happen? People would have to create and design their own 3D …

Rapid Prototyping in the Fine Arts, Architecture, Jewelry and Industrial Design

The art that has lived through the centuries, that of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, among others, is still loved because of the time it took to make, and the precision of the artists’ hand in creating it. The Sistine Chapel, for example, took four years to paint. The statue of David took three years to sculpt. Now, we can print beautiful and perfect items with the use of rapid prototyping and 3D printing, within hours or days. There’s a company in China that is creating art for a purpose. They are 3D printing houses in twenty four hours. In this article, we will discuss the ways in which rapid prototyping and 3D printing are making it easier for people to delve into the fine arts, architecture, jewelry, and industrial design. Fine Arts Wouldn’t it be amazing if one could eat a course in fine arts and be able to create paintings the same way Van-Gogh or Picasso did? Well, that reality is getting closer and closer. In an article provided by Bloomberg, a 3D printer …

What is Rapid Tooling

Much progress has been made with direct part fabrication. However, there are still really limited and slow processes with the fastest additive systems. They are incapable of producing parts in a wide enough range of material fast enough to match. They simply aren’t able to produce parts in a material range wide enough at a quick enough rate to match the enormous requirements’ spectrum across all industries. Thus, conventional processes, such as casting and molding, are still the only methods capable of producing parts in a material range wide enough at a quick enough rate to match the enormous requirements’ spectrum. This is where rapid tooling comes in. Rapid tooling is tooling that is made with additive processes in which the term is derived from the most popular early name within the field called rapid prototyping. Furthermore, rapid prototyping eventually started extending some of the technologies to create objects out of metals and more durable items. This means that rapid prototyping can be used to create tools, like injection molds. Additionally, the natural terminology extension …

Additional Organizations

There are additional companies that produced 3D printing systems. Formlabs, PP3DP Company (China), Ultimaking Ltd. (Netherlands), and Solidoodle just to name a few. Formlabs, based in Massachusetts, was founded in 2011 was well known for raising close to $3 million in a Kickstarter campaign, and for also creating the Form 1 and Form 2 3D printers. Formlabs and PP3DP Company Formlabs was founded by Maxin Lobovsky, Natan Linder, and David Cranor. The three students met while students at MIT, in the Media Lab. They used their experiences at MIT, as well as Lobovsky using his experience with the Fab@Home project at Cornell University to create FormLabs. FormLabs was developed to create an easy-to-use and affordable desktop stereolithography 3D printer, while receiving early investing from Mitch Kapor, Joi Ito, and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavor. FormLabs had been featured in a documentary, titled Print the Legend, which documented the stories of several leading companies in the 3D desktop industry. FormLabs was a leader in the 3D printing world. PP3DP Company (China), also known as Personal Portable 3D …