How can rapid prototyping improve manufacturing?

What is rapid prototyping?
A manufacturing prototype is a sample of a product. The manufacturing prototype is released to manufacturers and engineers in order to test the product’s viability before taking it to production. Factors such as durability, performance, and the cost and difficulty of production can all be gauged through the creation of an accurate prototype.

Prior to rapid prototyping technology, this process was considerably slower and more costly than it is today. Getting products out of the development stage was therefore more difficult, and many ideas died before they ever received a proper test run. Rapid prototyping technology has evolved in the past two decades to vastly improve the prototyping process.

How rapid prototyping improved the manufacturing process
the prototyping can generate an accurate model of a product, giving designers, engineers, and manufacturers the opportunity to examine many aspects of an object before undertaking full scale production. Prototypes can be evaluated for ergonomics, aesthetic appeal, and ease of manufacturing.

Rapid prototyping has shortened the design cycle, or the amount of time it takes to go from product conception to production. A precise prototype can be created in about two days for very little money. Once a prototype is approved, factory manufacturing and tooling set up can begin, while the design phase is being completed. This allows for the reduction of manufacturing lead times, generating cost

What are some of the industrial applications of rapid prototyping?
Some of the areas where the rapid prototyping process is applied include:

Making of drones
Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a rapid prototyping machine that creates a drone that flies out of the machines.

This is a great tech advancement in drone manufacturing since it will take less time and funds to manufacture drones.

Developing aerospace and defense equipment
Rapid prototyping services are quite popular in the aerospace and defense industry. These services are required when testing out prototypes before they are approved to be manufactured.

Rapid prototyping is great in testing design that would have been too costly to test using the traditional methods.

Designing medicine devices
Rapid prototyping companies in the medical industry, such as WayKen, have refined their processes by offering a fast turnaround time in producing medical devices such as scalpels, retractors, medical diagnostic, and display devices, among other devices.

With 3D printing, doctors can see medical equipment prototypes and test them to provide the best treatment for their patients.

Used in making automotive parts
Rapid prototyping has been a key part of the manufacturing of automotive parts. Additive manufacturing has the production of automotive parts with integrated functionality without tooling. This has led to a great reduction in the development and production cost.

WKproto is a professional rapid prototyping and low-volume production manufacture specializing in 3D printing, CNC machining, and Vacuum Casting. Our factory and parter factories enable rapid prototyping of designs from our customers and low volume production for market verification.

We have three factories. 3D printing factory meets the demands of most 3D printing services with 100 SLA machines, 10 SLS machines, 10 MJF machines, 10 SLM machines, and 20 FDM machines. CNC machining factories for processing metals, plastic and more materials with more than 200 machines for CNC milling/CNC lathes/EDM / Wire EDM and the Vacuum Casting factory is for low volume production for ABS、PC、PP、PE、PA、POM、PMMA、PVC.