Main Functions Of Rapid Prototyping Technology

The development of RP/RT technology at home and abroad, its economic benefits and its important role in enhancing enterprise's product development capability.

International statistics show that 1/3 in RP prototype is used as a visualization tool for evaluating design, assisting in the design of molds, communicating with designers and manufacturers and engineering tenders. 1/3 is used for trial assembly and performance tests, such as aerodynamics test, photoelastic stress analysis, etc., and 1/4 is used to assist in mold manufacturing.

Another important application area of prototype manufacturing is medical treatment.

It is used to make teaching or surgical reference models, or to assist in the manufacture of prostheses for surgical repair.

By the end of 96 years, more than 200 molding machines have been installed around the world, and over 1000 have been sold in 97 years. It is estimated that 1500 molding machines will be put into operation in 98 years.

At present, the total sales volume of the SL molding machine is the largest, accounting for about 50%.

The sales ratio of FDM has increased, and the concept machine has sprung up, showing a trend of rapid rise.

The concept machine is mainly characterized by low price (usually 5-9 US dollars / Taiwan). The intensity and accuracy of its prototype are poor. It is mainly used to verify design concepts and training talents, and it has become a trend of CAD terminal.

It includes the use of silicone rubber, metal powder epoxy resin, low melting point alloy and other methods to accurately copy the RP prototype to die, the life of these simple molds is 50-1000 pieces, suitable for trial production stage.

For manufacturing steel dies with long life, a mature process is RP prototype to three dimensional grinding wheel, and the whole graphite electrode is used for electric spark dies.

This process is characterized by RP prototype and vibration lapping. It avoids CNC processing and saves CNC programming and processing time.

A medium and complex electrode can be completed in 4-8 hours, and the accuracy of the complex is higher.

This process is suitable for making injection mold, forging die, die casting die and other cavity mold.

The use of RP/RT technology reduces the cycle to 1/3-1/10 and reduces the cost to 1/3-1/5 compared with the traditional NC machining die.

Due to the remarkable economic benefits of RT, in recent years, the industry has invested more and more manpower and funds in the research and development of RT, so the income of RT has also been greatly increased.

According to SME statistics, the annual growth rate of RT service revenue over the past four years is higher than that of RP system sales, such as 62.7% growth in 96 years than 95 years, while RP equipment sales growth is 42.6%.

The establishment of a RP/RT oriented service organization to serve large numbers of small and medium-sized enterprises has become a very promising industry.

So far, nearly 300 service providers have been established around the world.

At the end of 96, its total revenue amounted to US $286 million 400 thousand, accounting for 58.2% of RP&M industry revenue.

RP/RT service institutions are usually small in scale, with only one RP system, one CAD workstation, less than 10 workers, and RP prototyping.

In recent years, due to the good effectiveness of service providers and the increasing scale of service organizations, a large number of RP/RT enterprises have emerged.

Like Japan's ARRK venture network, there are 15 stores.

Japan's Compression company has 8 stores, 240 employees, 16 RP systems, 36 CNC processing centers, 15 injection molding machines and 65 workstations.

There are 210 employees in the United States, 28 RP equipment (20 SL machines, 6 SLS machines, 2 FDM machines), 16 CNC processing centers, 5 EDM machines and 12 injection molding machines.

The business scope of the service organization is extended to silicone rubber soft mold, wax core, casting, electrode and all kinds of moulds.

Most of the service providers remain on the scale of about 20 people.

Yin Hua company of Shenzhen has invested about 10000000 yuan in fixed assets and established a service center mainly based on SLA, graphite electrode forming machine and silicone rubber molding machine.

At present, the existing domestic design and complete sets provide the equipment, materials and technology capabilities of the RP&M service center, which will greatly save investment and operation costs, so that the service center will get better results.

3. rapid casting (Quick Casting)

A precision casting with a roughness of 6.4 micron can be produced by ceramic casting process.

It can also directly use RP process to produce resin mould for pressing the wax core, and economically produce small batch castings.

In order to reduce the excessive gas produced by the lost casting process, the RP prototype can be made into a hollow structure, and the hollow part can also be supported by honeycomb to enhance the stiffness of the RP prototype.

Because the RP prototype can easily be attached to the cooling pipe and other structures, the RP prototype can be used as injection mold directly, and a small amount of plastic parts can be produced for use in the product development stage.

Especially for aerospace, aviation, weapons and other fields, complex shape parts are very applicable.