Rapid Prototyping

Profits accrue when the income from sales exceeds the total cost of manufacture, and profits can thus be increased by either leveraging (increasing) sales or by reducing costs—preferably both. In conventional manufacturing, there is a focus on reducing labor content associated with the manufacturing process. Usual choices have been automation and other speed reduction methodologies which attack the problem strictly from the standpoint of how it is manufactured. Conventional wisdom, however, has not, until very recently, been applied to the way in which the product is first conceived, designed, and then transformed into "hard" physical units. The challenge in business today, as it has b

. . .
. The above systems "deposit" material to form the model or mold but still rely on the digitized CAD information. Deposition methods include fused deposition modeling (FDM), multi-jet manufacture (MJM), and direct shell production casting (DSPC). All of these systems share the same principal in that a digital file of the computer-generated model is sliced into successive layers. The information of each layer is transferred to the processing head of the machine, and the shape of the object is generated. The actual build process will depend on the type of material used and the method of object curing: ultra violet light, heat and or chemical. FDM is one of the cheaper RP processes (Foundry On-Line, 1999). Here a series of lines are plotted using extruded thermoplastic material to produce a block of ABS material. Ink-jet technology is at the core of this process. Existing RP Technologies and Systems The first RP system was introduced into the U.S. market in 1987 at the AUTOFACT show in Detroit by a company called 3D Systems, Inc. While it was somewhat inaccurate and the choice of materials was limited, for the first time engineers had the opportunity to produce three-dimensional objects directly from Computer Aided Design
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Foundry On-Line, Industrial Revolution, Prototyping RP, Imaging MRI, Instead RP, Normally RP, Design CAD, Background Profits, , United Kingdom, rapid prototyping, on-line 1999, foundry on-line 1999, foundry on-line, laser beam, march 21, kelly 1999, 1999 march 21, 1999 march, dolenc 1994, rp technologies systems, selective laser, manufactured conventional, rapid prototyping rp,
Approximate Word count = 2093
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Rapid Prototyping