Assignment on Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is purely the engineering new term as well as the simplest form. It is the complete process in which the engineers working in the industries focus to make the prototypes immediately of any item or product to visually and functionally evaluate the engineering design of the product. In simple word, the prototyping is the processes of making a dummy product to show audience and management or clients that how the product will look like. It is a very effective technique that provides the model to the development team of the company as well as the clients can make some changes in the initial phase before the development or making the product. furthermore, the rapid prototyping does not provide the complete or finished product but it can only provide a basic visual model of the product. Every product’s rapid prototype will always go through the full of the prototyping processes which are made and defined by the engineers. Rapid prototyping has a four-step model in which several kinds of operations, as well as activities, are performed. The rapid development has several benefits which will be explained in the next sections. There are several types of prototyping links of rapid prototyping are also mentioned in this document. The prototyping links can be defects, materials, challenges, state of the arts of the rapid prototype as well as the material feeding.

Rapid Prototyping Process

Rapid prototyping is the process of rapid development and examining a series of prototypes or dummy products in the company for customer satisfaction. Rapid prototyping is the iterative technique that is used to design the dummy of the product before working or start development on the product. Rapid prototyping is a very beneficial process that saves time as well as monetary resources including the efforts of the employees in the company. The main benefit of this technique is to solve and exclude the problems form the design of the product as well as it provides help businesses to reach the market quickly and development of the product with more focus as the requirements of the client. The rapid prototyping process has some steps or stages in which different types of things and activities are performed to make the prototype. According to the given picture, the rapid prototyping process has four steps in which further activities are performed. The rapid prototype model steps are design, analysis of prototype, development of the prototype as well as implementation (Kruth, et al., 1998).

Design of Rapid Prototyping

The designing of the prototyping is the very important step in which all of the requirements of the product are gathered as well as these are managed and aligned. Furthermore, the requirements of the company and clients which are in the form of raw form, are analyzed as well as processed to make it align. When the process of the design is stated, the engineers working on the product prototyping focus to make an effective design of the product. The design of the prototype can be drawn on the paper as well as on the digital form. The prototype design can also be drawn and make on the computer by using some software tools. Most of the companies or engineering firms focus to make the design of the product in the 3D images (Rao & Padmanabhan, 2007).

Analysis of Rapid Prototyping

in the analysis step, the product prototyping design is evaluated. There are several types of activities performed which can be very effective in the proper development of the product. The analysis step of the rapid prototyping step is providing the tracking, evaluation as well as some kind of questions in which several types of questions raised and asked related to the products. In the activity of tracking, it is estimated that how much time is required to develop the product as well as what resources and how many resources required for the product. The evaluating activity is an effective activity in the analysis which is encouraging on the self-evaluation in which the engineers, peer leaders as well as the inspectors critically analyze the product as well as ask several types of questions. Several questions can raise different types of important issues in the design of the prototype as well as the procedure of making the prototype throughout the requirements are also analyzed and if the inspector finds any flaw in it, then he can ask for making changes (Kruth, 1991).

Development of Rapid Prototyping

In the development, the developing step is another rapid prototyping step which can be very effective because the development of the prototype is performed in this step. In the development step, the requirements which are converted from the raw form to logical form gathered and development of the prototyping begins. The developed prototype is represented in front of peer reviewers as well as inspectors.

Implementation of Rapid Prototyping

The implementation step is telling that the prototyping is effectively designed, developed, as well as analyzed. The product prototype is very effectively developed as well as it meets all of the requirements of the clients. The first evaluation is performed by the peer reviewers, testing teams as well as inspectors. When the product prototype is developed as well as meets with the requirements then it will get the green signal to go in the production line. In simple words, the product prototype will be completed as the complete model of the product as well as it is also providing the visual look to the developers and audience to show how the product will look like. When all of the product prototyping official procedure will be completed then it will be shifted to the production line where the production team will start working on the product as well as they effectively start the work on the product.

Discuss how does the material is fed into the machine

The materials are fed in the machine as well as the finished products will automatically travel from one machine to another machine with the help of conveyer belt as well as with the help hooks or handles or any human assistance. In simple words, the input of one machine will be the output of the previous machine. Although, the raw material travels in a speedy way from one machine to the other machine or workstations with minimum work in material handling, storage as well as progress. Furthermore, in some of the machines, the materials are inserted with the help of the human hand but mostly it is also based on the automatic method as mentioned previously.

Discuss typical defects in rapid prototyping

·         Deficiency in the accuracy of prototyping

·         The cost must be added in prototyping

·         Some processes are the most expensive and cannot be economical for the company

·         It cannot match material properties like surface finish and strength

·         Requires further labor for prototyping

·         The range of materials that can be used is limited

·         Overlooking some key features because it cannot be prototyped

·         End-user confusion, customers mistaking it for the finished project/developer misunderstanding of user objectives

Discuss challenges in rapid prototyping

There can be several types of challenges in the rapid prototyping which are listed below in this section.

·         Excessive Development time

·         User confusion

·         Prototyping expense

·         Excessive focus on one part of the product

·         Increase or consume so the time of development of the product

·         Sometimes, the requirements of the client will not meet with the prototype

Discuss the state of the art of rapid prototyping

·         Stereolithography (SLA)

·         Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

·         Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

·         Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

·         Laminated Object Manufacturing.

·         Digital Light Processing

·         Binder Jetting.

Mention at least 3 different kinds of materials used in rapid prototyping

·         ABS

·         PLA

·         special prototyping wax

·         Vacuum plaster

·         low-temperature furnace 

References of Rapid Prototyping

Kruth, J. P., 1991. Material incress manufacturing by rapid prototyping techniques.. CIRP annals, pp. 603-614..

Kruth, J. P., Leu, M. C. & Nakagawa, T., 1998. Progress in additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping. CIRP Annals-Manufacturing Technology, pp. 525-540..

Rao, R. V. & Padmanabhan, K. K., 2007. Rapid prototyping process selection using graph theory and matrix approach.. Journal of Materials Processing Technology,, 1(3), pp. 81-88..