Accelerated Product Development

Very few things in this world are as powerful as an idea which is about to be embodied in visible form. The question for many manufacturers is how to narrow the gap between idea and implementation, to deliver a quality product which will meet a specific need. Whilst delivering these products, shortening of time to market is a top priority for any manufacturing industry in today's race to be world competitive. The challenge lies in meeting these goals and still operating at an acceptable profit. Increased competition and pressure, however, can foster innovation and efficiency. Such an innovation - with a favourable outcome for manufacturing - is Rapid Prototyping [RP].

RP systems allow designers to create three-dimensional, pre-production parts directly from computer generated designs. This can be done faster, and normally less expensively than conventional methods - especially when the design is opposed to several weeks or months with conventional methods. The ability to create a model or prototype for evaluation to assess relative merits or possible design flaws, is made possible by inspecting the object in three dimensional form.

The first Rapid Prototyping (RP) systems burst onto the scene ten years ago, accompanied by predictions of fast and wide-ranging acceptance by a variety of manufacturing industries. Reality, of course, has since set in. RP technology has continued to evolve, and today there are more processes and material choices than ever before. Continued growth and acceptance of RP will come only if the technology reaches a broader base of users. For this to happen, it must become easier for companies to measure the benefits of RP and to justify its costs. To measure the speed and cost advantages of RP, requires time and money that many small companies can not afford. Furthermore, comparing the accuracy and feature detail offered by the wide range of RP systems can become an overwhelming task, especially for companies already stretched for resources.

Standard, well understood methods of measuring and evaluating RP's benefits and limitations, will help propel the RP industry into its second decade, and make it acceptable to and part of the SA manufacturing community.