Rapid prototyping proved to be a great technological decision, which helps to create qualitative prototyping models in very short terms. The time is coming when rapid prototyping will be applied in order to satisfy the demand of the most fastidious clients who want to get the needed details in short term. Rapid prototyping provides the speedy production of the most complicated orders, which is one of the greatest advantages of this technology.
The application of rapid prototyping is restricted by its limited popularity and narrow specialization of the technology. The sphere of rapid prototyping usage must be widened in order to make this branch of prototyping more popular and salable.
Does rapid prototyping have a distinct definition? Well, different specialists describe this process in their own ways. Let us try to compose our own definition. Rapid prototyping is a computer-aided process, lying in application of additive technology in order to create a prototyping model (part, detail) of any real object. That is why some specialists say that they use CAD (computer-aided or assisted design) in the RP (abbreviation for rapid prototyping).
What was RP a couple of decades ago? It was a manual process that could take up to several weeks of painstaking work to produce the final object. It can be easily explained by the way the work was carried out. Prototyping specialists had to cast and shape the model manually, which is not that easy and very time-consuming. It was very hard to achieve the full likeness of the source painted model and final object. To get a perfect similarity RP specialists had to work very hard and about several days or even weeks. The process was gradually developing opening up new possibilities for rapid prototyping improvement. It took much time for rapid prototyping to become known among wide range of people, having nothing in common with engineering. Presently, the RP process is becoming more and more popular each day, and this fact can be corroborated by advertisement and great results of the process. As the process was so long-lasting, engineers began to think of how to make working conditions better and simpler. The manual work proved to be unproductive and unprofitable, so it was decided to create rapid prototyping machine that would be able to create any real objects and details of any existing mechanism. That was how the transition from manual prototyping to machine prototyping was made. The process became much more profitable, faster and qualitative. People all over the world continue to get the information about rapid prototyping, the branch offices of leading rapid prototyping companies appear all over the world offering their services. The RP became so popular that appearance of portable prototyping machines is round the corner. Who knows what surprises RP will give us!

Are you aware that rapid prototype can solve lots of technological problems about your business? Learn more about what rapid prototype is and how rapid prototype services can help to meed your technical needs.

Tags: prototyping, rapid prototype