Appliance Design - October 2008 - (Page 12)

PROTOTYPING 3D Systems offers a polypropylene-like material that offers high flexibility. Materials Play the Part New choices offer enhanced properties. n the early days of rapid prototyping, product developers were ecstatic to have quickly produced parts that accurately indicated form and fit. But as compressed development cycles have placed more demands upon design engineers, they in turn demand more from their prototypes. They want RP parts that exhibit greater functionality, more durability, higher accuracy, and improved appearance. The key to meeting those demands is continued innovation in the realm of RP materials, and the companies that create such products have stepped up to the plate and delivered. In the past few years, the industry has witnessed an expanded range of RP materials that bring product designers ever closer to their ideal – making rapid prototypes that look and perform as well as production parts. Rapid prototyping material choices are still somewhat limited as compared to injection moldable plastics and castable metals. While there are thousands of traditional thermoplastics on the market, for instance, only a few dozen grades of thermoplastics and photopolymers for additive plastic systems are available. However, the number of materials I by larry adams 12 applianceDESIGN October 2008 that mimic more common plastics is growing. Today, there are a number of prototyping variants of ABS, polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC), and other materials. The menu of metal powders used in laser sintering also contains new options. Some of the new materials challenge the conventional wisdom that RP parts are not as strong as production parts made by injection molding or casting. Impact resistance, elongation at break, flexural modulus, and other material properties have improved. New infiltrants, which infuse materials with enhanced physical and mechanical properties, are now available including glass-filled materials and flame retardant additives. Beyond being sturdier, some of the new materials offer enhanced aesthetic features such as transparency, and new colors and shades. Several companies even offer soft elastomer materials. Rapid prototyping is achieved by a wide range of technologies. Some of the more widely used ones include stereolithography (SL), which uses liquid photopolymers; Stratasys fused deposition modeling (FDM), which uses extruded polymer filaments; www.applianceDESIGN.com http://www.applianceDESIGN.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Appliance Design - October 2008

Appliance Design - October 2008 Contents Editorial Shipments/Forecasts News Watch Prototyping - Materials Play the Part Prototyping - Mix & Match Motors Electronics Coatings Design Marts Association Report: AHRI Advertiser's Index

Appliance Design - October 2008

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