Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Hand-carving prototypes is an art. “Some of the old foam models are really
things of beauty,” Mike said. Then again, 3D printed prototyping can also be
an art. Colorful 3D printed models of cars or motorcycles look confusingly
realistic. A 3D printer can fabricate complex and unusual shapes that enable
designers to dream up futuristic or entirely novel new designs. And, it's faster.
Reducing product development costs (cheaper)
Some 3D printed prototypes are used by companies to demonstrate design
concepts. Other prototypes are used to test out another phase in a product's
lifecycle: iguring out how product parts will be mass produced. “Test and it”
3D printed parts minimize the pitfalls inherent in designing a very complicated
product. Despite our growing ease with all things digital, there's no substitute
for the simple act of holding physical parts in one's hands.
A test and fit prototype might be a bunch of unassembled parts that
engineers attempt to put together in a sort of manufacturing dress rehearsal.
When Microsoft surprised the world with by announcing a previously top-
secret product concept, a hybrid tablet/laptop called Surface, the media
wondered how the company had successfully kept product development
under wraps. Usually an early announcement of a radical new tech product
is accompanied by rogue photos leaked from a manufacturing facility. The
Microsoft hardware division was able to keep product development secret
by 3D printing prototypes on machines buried deep in a campus building.
A second goal of test and it assembly is to make sure that factory machines
can physically produce a design concept. In engineering product design
courses, students spend several weeks learning about the dificult trade-offs
between a designer's great idea and the realities of the factory loor. Thick
textbooks describe in painful detail what design ideas will and won't work
on a production line. Typical factory machines that mold or cut products into
shape have dificulty making an object that is hollow inside, has interlocked
parts, or has a complicated internal structure. But not all production challenges
can be avoided just by following textbook guidelines.
Upfront investment is squandered when a company discovers too late that
its new product's parts don't it together. 3D printed test and it prototypes
help cell phone product designers lay out tiny hardware components to it
nicely inside a device's sleek case. Hearing aids, car dashboards, razors, hair
combs, and smartphones must feel good to the touch and it comfortably with
