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What Is Rapid Prototyping?

Rapid prototyping means making a physical sample of a new product design idea. This is done as a preliminary step towards eventual production, and is most useful when verifying that the finished product will look, feel, and perform as intended. New product developers turn to rapid prototyping for several reasons. They’re used for functional testing, approvals, design iterations, for crowdfunding campaigns, trade show models, and as a bridge to low-volume manufacturing.

Prototypes often inspire re-designs, improvements, and other modifications that may not have been obvious merely from a computer graphic, so in this regard they’re beneficial for optimizing a design before committing resources to larger volumes. In fact, being able to correct design errors early in the development phase can more than compensate for the cost of the prototype itself, so they’re wise investments.

What Are The Different Types Of Rapid Prototyping?

Any physical model can potentially be a prototype. The difference lies in how closely it reflects the intended finished part.

Very simple models can be made with paper, plastic, modeling clay, styrofoam, balsa wood, or other common household materials. These are examples of very low-fidelity prototypes, but they do have the advantage of being easy and inexpensive to make.

These types of prototypes would likely not function very well or for long, so they’re used primarily to get a visual idea of the design and to compare it in scale to other parts.

More high-fidelity prototypes use modern machine tools and materials, including various 3D printing technologies, vacuum casting, rapid tooling for injection molding, and CNC machining.

Prototypes often inspire re-designs, improvements, and other modifications that may not have been obvious merely from a computer graphic, so in this regard they’re beneficial for optimizing a design before committing resources to larger volumes. In fact, being able to correct design errors early in the development phase can more than compensate for the cost of the prototype itself, so they’re wise investments.

How To Choose The Right Rapid Prototyping Technique

The right prototyping method is the one that best fits your budget, the complexity of the part, what you want the prototype to do, and your development timeline. Better prototypes cost more money and take longer to make, but they also more faithfully represent the form, fit, and function of a production part.

The basic questions to ask are these:

There are many variables to consider and we cannot cover them all here.