Manufacturing Engineering: Rapid Prototyping Process

Manufacturing Engineering
Assignment 2

Rapid Prototyping
Kacper Stasiuk
E-mail address: [e-mail]
Course number: DT-023/3
Supervisor: Michael Ring
Submission: 6/05/2015
I declare that the work contained in this submission is my own work, and has not been taken from the work of others, save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of this submission.

Signature_________________ Date____________ ABSTRACT
This report presents rapid prototyping topic. A general RP process and some of the most popular methods are described. Moreover, the most important applications are highlighted and software used during RP process is listed. Also, advantages and disadvantages

It excellently eases communication between designers or between a customer and a producer. It is much easier to visualize some concept having prototype prepared than only from plenty of 2D drawings. Moreover, it allows different departments to work independently and for example, production of some instrument mechanism can start before housing is designed. It also reduces costs of mistakes – wrongly modelled geometry is detected through rapid prototyping, not after final product manufacturing. RP is also a big help for a different laboratory tests. For example, prototypes are used during wind tunnel tests when different shape modifications are examined and compared. It is much easier to slightly modify CAD model and make the next RP geometry than to make any modifications of metal

7. CHOOSING THE BEST METHOD.
As it was mentioned before, every RP method has some advantages and disadvantages. Before engineer decides, which process he is going to use, priorities have to be specified. For example, if some method is going to be used, when costs reduction is the most important aspect, but when surface finishing is the most important, completely another method will be used. A brief comparison of methods and their usefulness for different criteria is presented in figure.
One of the most important setup that has to be specified is so-called build envelope size. It significantly impacts operational efficiency. On the one hand, if it is too small, some larger parts will not be able to be manufactured and it will limit potential. On the other hand, too big envelope may lead to unnecessary material loss and therefore the efficiency will be reduced.
It is also very important to specify expected quality of product. The higher quality is required, the thicker layers have to be used and therefore the longer process time is. Moreover, body has to be correctly positioned during manufacturing process, since the strength of structure in z-direction is usually lower than in x-y