Articles

Taking Rapid Prototyping To The Next Level

The rapid prototyping industry has been around a couple of decades. Historically applied for one-offs, it is seeing increased use as a method of direct digital manufacturing (DDM).

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Composites

Direct Versus Indirect Tooling and Beyond

As new materials are introduced to the RP industry, it may be worthwhile to revisit processes that have been previously dismissed as not being viable. 

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LFAM

Electron Beam Melting (EBM) Offers a New Alternative for Producing Titanium Parts and Prototypes

EBM promises to deliver fully dense parts with properties equal to wrought materials faster than other metal-based additive-fabrication methods. 

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Mold Tooling

Blending Rapid Tooling with Conventional Moldmaking

Rapid tooling is a good fit for a many prototype tools and a growing number of production tools.  

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Metal

Laser Consolidation -- One-Step Manufacturing of Metal Parts and Tools

Laser-based direct manufacturing process allows parts to be built directly from digital data using a wide variety of metallic powders.  

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Obstacles to Rapid Manufacturing

Will material cost, processing issues and company culture stifle growth?

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Direct Metal Technologies Tackle the Impossible

Rapid prototyping, rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing are not the phrases used in discussions of direct metal systems. While speed (rapid) is inherent in the process and critical for success, there is much more to the technologies that produce metal parts and tools through direct, additive processes.  

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Software

Shop Controls Its Own Destiny

Waiting sometimes 12 weeks for delivery of aluminum castings was a production bottleneck for this Colorado aerospace component manufacturer. Using a novel combination of solids modeling software, verification and stereolithography, the company managed to reduce lead times by 25 percent. This approach may be one your shop can use as well.

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Postprocessing

Machining From STL Files

If you think the STL file format is just a convenient means for programming rapid prototyping machines, think again. Here's how STL can work for machinists too.

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