5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Rapid Prototyping？

Here Are Five Benefits that Rapid Prototyping Can Bring to Your Next Big Idea

When it comes to the prototyping stage, nothing is more important to your final product. It helps you test different components and refine your ideas, providing a clear pathway from concept to reality. This stage occurs early enough in the development process to provide product designers with valuable insights ' before too many resources are allocated to a concept that has little chance for success. Here, we'll break down how rapid prototyping benefits your product development cycle in the long run.

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What Is Rapid Prototyping?

With approximately 30,000 new products launching each year, how can your brand stand out? One of the best ways is to use a prototype early in the development stage. Prototyping is defined as the creation of functional or nonfunctional samples to help validate ideas, test designs, and acquire approvals.

Essentially, it's the step where your big ideas are put to the test. The goal of your concept models is to help your team learn what works, what doesn't work, and where improvements can be made. Gaining these valuable insights makes it possible to pivot if needed and finalize your product into one that has everything consumers need and expect from your brand.

Your prototype can be manufactured in several different ways by expert engineers. With the innovative techniques in place today, prototyping engineers can take almost anything you can envision and turn it into a tangible object ready for evaluation. Commonly used prototyping tools include:

• Multi jet fusion (MJF)
• Selective laser melting
• Stereolithography (SLA)
• CNC machining
• Injection molding
• Urethane casting

Benefits of Rapid Prototyping

At this stage, your R&D team can validate the most promising concepts on the table, using a prototype to test core features with a panel of users, assess how this concept meets current market demand, and make adjustments as needed prior to launch. Rapid prototyping helps you make the most of this step in the product development cycle. Partnering with expert engineers has several benefits, including:

Reducing Product Development Costs
Rapid prototyping lets you turn your concept into a test subject quickly and efficiently.

Time-saving measures early in the development stage help bring you one step closer to a final product that yields a return on your investment. Whether you're an established global brand or a small business, any cost reduction can help your bottom line.

Allowing Functionality Testing
Your prototype reflects exactly how your product looks and operates. Testing and retesting provide opportunities to fine-tune your ideas and turn them into the winning designs that are most likely to succeed. Does it offer a sound user experience? Does it achieve your goals? At this point, you can uncover the features that need a little more work and identify potential areas for expansion.

Eliminating the Risk of Product Failure
If your product designers discover major issues during the testing phase, these critical design flaws can be remedied before your product hits the market. It's much easier to fix a prototype than it is to fix a product that's already in the hands of consumers. A thorough evaluation of your design helps minimize the chance of failure in the long run.

Improving User (and Stakeholder) Involvement
Prototypes encourage collaboration and constructive feedback from vital sources. After creating a low- to medium-fidelity prototype that meets your expectations, you can create a high-fidelity prototype for users and stakeholders to explore for themselves. This enhanced model makes it easier to gain outside insights on the final iteration of your proposed product and reassure stakeholders in their investments toward your ideas.

Ergonomically Evaluating and Identifying Product Hazards
Prototyping allows product designers to identify potential product safety and/or compliance issues. From form to function, this stage is where you can get to the root of any risk factors involved in your design. Numerous materials are used in the prototyping process, making it easy to find the ideal combination that ensures your final product achieves your goals.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of CNC Machining Services for Prototypes and Production Parts. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

Contact Advantage Engineering

Returning to the office as lockdowns lift first and foremost means keeping your team healthy. Once a concrete safety plan is in place, the next step is to pick up where you left off and bring operations back up to speed. In this second post of our back-to-the-office blog series, we're sharing how 3D printing can be a major player in quickly getting your business back on track.

Due to the coronavirus, changes to the way we worked were sudden. But thanks to the capabilities of rapid prototyping and 3D printing more broadly, your product development timeframe doesn't need to suffer. Here's how.

When it comes to product development, time is of the essence: especially if you've had to put design iterations on hold during the lockdown. Iteration rounds when traditionally manufacturing prototypes are typically time-consuming processes, but this is not the case with AM.

Improving parts with 3D printing is quick and simple. Redesigning a part using traditional methods means recreating the mold to build an updated prototype from, which ultimately takes weeks or even months. Alternatively, in less than a day, those using AM can edit their original design file and send it to be 3D printed. Engineers can worry less about the time required to perfect a final design when data can be quickly updated and shared with manufacturers digitally. Once a file is sent, the prototype will be in the designer's hands within days.

One side effect of the coronavirus outbreak is the necessity for businesses to cut back on costs. The global economy has slowed, and many have faced the difficulties of decreased revenue. However, a lowered budget doesn't have to mean delaying company innovation.

3D printing enables innovation with its freedom of design. Engineers can design parts with geometries and interlocking features that traditional manufacturing cannot ' an opportunity that often means optimizing parts to reduce costs. From hollowing to incorporating lattice structures, engineers can design lightweight parts that save them 50% or more on part costs. Freedom of design delivers new possibilities that not only provide new ways to solve problems, but also save costs in a time when it's a common demand.

AM offers hugely varied combinations of technologies and materials that engineers can choose from to optimize their designs. From Laser Sintering to Fused Deposition Modeling and from aluminum to PA 12, there are options available to fit every project ' even in the most demanding industries.

An effective prototype is one that can give product developers an accurate idea of how the final product will perform. Whether that's reviewing the texture and color or putting the part up to rigorous testing, engineers need a prototype that's up to the task. 3D printing offers materials that are made to withstand taxing form, fit, and function tests so engineers can have full confidence in their final design.

Services that you can be certain of in this time of uncertainty are crucial. The entire world is dealing with the impact of COVID-19, so we must support one another to bring back confidence in our economy. Having manufacturing support nearby means working with others who are familiar with your current regional situation and can quickly assist you. Our offices all over the world provide this quick and reliable local support to ensure that each customer gets the assistance they need. Our prototyping experts speak your language to help make your next product the best it can be.

The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic has also brought on the increased use of online services and abnormal working hours as employees juggle working from home with unanticipated responsibilities such as homeschooling. Our 24/7 online 3D printing platform provides flexible services so that as companies return to work, and employees likely continue with irregular schedules, the creation of designs can continue smoothly.

To show our support, we're giving our customers a product from our range of 3D-printed solutions that stop the spread of germs as companies return to their offices. While supplies last, OnSite customers will receive a hooked badge holder with each order as of May 4th.*