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PC ABS Rapid prototyping can reduce the number of costly engineering changes made to a mold, cut the time-to-market for

a new product, and—with the development of new RP systems and materials—even fill the gap between prototype and low-volume

processing.Developments in rapid prototyping (RP) have gotten to the point that firms such as Quickparts Inc. (Atlanta, GA)

are gaining more notice, and more competition. As its name implies, Quickparts can supply parts, quickly, using CAD models to

form parts via a number of RP methods. Patrick Hunter, VP of sales and marketing at Quickparts, notes, “The continual

evolution of materials has pushed prototyping into the mainstream as a technology. It allows designers to have greater design

freedom: they’re not as limited in their design, especially with respect to SLS (Selective Laser Sintering), which many

customers are choosing for actual end-use parts.”Rapid prototyping is no longer confined to just prototyping. Terry Wohlers,

publisher of the “Wohlers Report 2007,” a 220-page global study on advances in this field, points out that RP also entails

rapid manufacturing (RM), which can cover a number of “fast processes” including rapid tooling (RT), the speedy

manufacturing of mold or tooling. It also encompasses the new moniker ‘additive fabrication’ (AF), which has developed into

three basic categories: 3D printing for product design and concept modeling with machines such as those manufactured by 3D

Systems, Z Corp. and others; mid-range systems for fit-and-function applications and master patterns; and high-end systems

for the rapid manufacture of custom and short-run production parts, using machinery such as that produced by EOS.New

materials are cropping up with regularity, mimicking plastics of all sorts: polyamide (PA, neat or filled with glass,

aluminum, or carbon fibers); PS, ABS, PC, PC-ABS, and polyphenylsulfone, plus a growing family of photopolymers (mostly

epoxies and acrylates).Wohlers projects that the next frontier for rapid technology is applying it to the “actual

manufacture of end-use parts,” or RM. “Considering the array of possibilities, the market potential is enormous,” Wohlers

states. “However it will take years to develop. In the meantime, compelling examples of RM will stimulate the development of

the next generation of systems. These machines will eventually affect a wide range of industries and applications around the

world. Product ideas that were once impractical due to tooling and other costs will become a reality.”One of those new

machines recently was acquired by Vaupell Rapid Solutions (Hudson, NH). It added Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)

capabilities with the installation of an M 270 DMLS system from EOS of North America Inc., a division of EOS GmbH, based near

Munich, Germany. Vaupell plans to produce tooling inserts, prototype parts, and end products directly in metal. “The M 270

will allow many of our customers to more quickly evaluate functional prototypes in actual or close-to-actual end materials,

and in design configurations and time frames not possible with any other established process,” explains General Manager

Steve Ettelson.