3D Printing for Rapid Prototyping
- Posted on
- By Maira
- Posted in 3d printing, rapid prototyping
3D printing has revolutionised the way businesses bring new products to the market. With this technology, you can turn your concepts into real, tangible prototypes within hours.
You can test multiple iterations, refine functionality early, and have your feedback incorporated into your design—and that, too, in a matter of days!
Speed
While 3D printing has many advantages, being able to create prototypes in record time is definitely a game-changer. Traditional manufacturing techniques, such as injection moulding, need weeks (or even months) to create moulds. 3D printing has a much shorter lead time—hours or days depending on the size of the product. Also, we can make any necessary adjustments instantly, and reflect them in the next print. This rapid prototyping process lets you streamline development, and ultimately, have a quicker time-to-market. Due to local production, we also have short delivery times!
Cost-effectiveness
Setup costs are much lower for 3D printed products than those made with traditional manufacturing techniques. If you need small quantities of a product, 3D printing is a very cost-effective option due to the low setup cost. The plastics used to print with are also not as expensive as other materials—for example, metal used to make moulds for injection moulding. In that case, making multiple iterations would be expensive as multiple moulds would need to be made. Also, the additive nature of the printing process means that there is less material wasted since 3d printing only uses the amount of material that is needed (there is, of course, some residual material).
Multiple Iterations
Due to the speed of the design and production process, multiple iterations are possible in a small amount of time. By keeping you up to date and informed about the progress of a project, we can implement any feedback you might have during the design process—before the first prototype has even been printed. This allows you to have greater control over the end product, because you have the freedom to remain involved with the design process. After the first prototype is printed and assembled, we can identify any flaws or adjustments that need to be made, and implement them instantly without, for example, needing to create a new mould. This also helps keep setup costs low. We continuously collaborate with our customers on each iteration until they are satisfied. In this case, the prototyping phase is done and the product can be printed and made into a fully functional final product. As you can see, 3D printing can really streamline your prototyping process!
To optimise the Turff logo for neat printing, we needed to make some adjustments.
We improved printability by closing the letters and adding an embossed logo instead.
The customer approved the design, and we began production.
Not only does 3D save valuable time, but it also reduces your costs compared to traditional prototyping methods so that you can have a more efficient and budget-friendly product development process. Contact us to get started!