Figure 1 shows a flow diagram of different stages during product development, incorporating iteration. It is important to note that different developments will stop at different phases, dependent on the development needs.

Phase 1 Concept Design - CAD Phase 2 Physical prototype SLA. SLS, Sanders, CNC Machining Phase 3 Reproduction of prototype, Silicone moulding, Spin Casting Phase 4 Development of Bridge-Tooling Phase 5 Development of final tooling

Figure 1: Flow diagram of different stages during product development

The well-known cost-of-change trends in figure 2 depicts the financial commitments needed at different design/production stages. Clearly, the need for verification of the idea in early development stages is evident - any design changes needed down the path is a very costly event - which underlines the need for a proven RP service.

Through optimisation of the product development process, two significant breakthroughs are achieved:

An increase in sales due to earlier product release; gaining of a larger market share due to early market entry.

Figure 3 shows a typical accelerated product development sceario:

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