The Top Three Reasons to Bring Rapid Prototyping In-House

Speed

Rapid prototyping in the office enables a design team to carry out more design iterations and bring products to market faster.

The reasons are obvious: there is no posting of models, no waiting for bureau contractors to put the job into their schedule, no transmission of large files. Just hit PRINT and pick up the model from the 3D printer once it is complete.

For Speedo, "...the Connex350 is used nearly every day, allowing prototypes to go from CAD model in the morning to in the pool by the afternoon..." [Find out more...]

Accuracy

SLA is recognised by many in the design industry as the preferred method for Rapid Prototyping. However, times change and 3D Printing technology is now as good as, if not superior to, SLA.

We built the same model (click the thumbnail to see it in better detail) on an SLA and an Objet 24, which resulted in the following benchmarking data:

Yet the SLA machine costs more than 5 times the price of the Objet 24. Even greater resolution is possible from Objet’s Eden and Connex ranges.

SLA has led the market for years, but 3D Printing is now a serious choice for any product design team.

Cost

For most companies that produce rapid prototypes on a regular basis, owning a 3D Printer makes financial sense.

Here is an example of a typical company with four seats of SolidWorks. They previously outsourced £20,000 a year to RP bureaus. Since buying an Objet Desktop 3D Printer they have found that...

• 25% of prototyping is still outsourced for functional reasons, leaving a £15,000 internal budget
• £5,000 a year covers depreciation and maintenance
• That leaves £10,000 a year for materials and labour
• Service bureaus typically charge 4 x actual model costs
• £10,000 = £40,000 spending power + the extra £5,000 still subcontracted = £45,000 a year of prototypes
• That is more than double the original number of parts

However these cost benefits are only part of the story. How much would it save your business to cut down the time taken for each design iteration? How much would it cost your company if your product designs were inadvertently misplaced? How much more innovative could you be if you could produce rapid prototypes.