Prototyping
The Rapid Manufacturing You Didn’t Know About
Despite its anticipated success, rapid manufacturing’s (RM) use is well below most predictions. While RM applications may be short of expectations, additive fabrication technologies and indirect rapid manufacturing have quietly been adopted and found solid acceptance in the manufacture of a number of products.
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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).
Read MoreDirect 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.
Read MoreElectron 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.
Read MoreBlending Rapid Tooling with Conventional Moldmaking
Rapid tooling is a good fit for a many prototype tools and a growing number of production tools.
Read MoreLaser 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.
Read MoreObstacles to Rapid Manufacturing
Will material cost, processing issues and company culture stifle growth?
Read MoreDirect 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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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.
Read MoreMachining 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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