With this process, you can increase production speeds, decrease development costs, and benefit from tighter feedback between design and manufacture. At MicroType Engineering, we create working prototypes through the combination of custom design solutions and parts.
Rapid prototyping allows you to solidify your creative ideas and refine your design principles before full-scale manufacturing. Our goal is to help you create, improve, and showcase your products without the need for large-scale investment.
Rapid prototyping is relevant for all PCBs, electronic components, and plastic housing parts. From microcontrollers and circuit boards to 3D printed cases, making your ideas physical helps you to discover potential issues and fix problems before manufacturing. We provide practical prototypes at all stages of the development cycle, with multiple revisions available before we lock down a final design.
Through rapid prototyping, you can highlight your vision and share your design with the world. Attractive and functional prototypes will enable you to showcase products and obtain valuable feedback from clients and stakeholders. In addition to PCBs and electronic parts, we specialize in 3D printing and additive fabrication models for plastic enclosures.
The most significant difference between prototyping and rapid prototyping is simply the speed of development. Rapid prototyping is faster, especially when it comes to electronic products because it uses an additive manufacturing technique commonly known as 3D printing. We apply this technique and CNC machining instead of mechanical injection molding and complex tooling to produce accurate prototypes quickly.
While the terms ‘rapid prototyping’ and ‘3D printing’ are often used interchangeably, they are not exactly the same thing. Rapid prototyping can be used to describe a range of fast and accurate prototyping methods, including 3D printing. 3D printing is a popular method of active additive fabrication, and rapid prototyping is a specific application of this technology. In addition, rapid prototyping may utilize advanced CNC machining, casting, and molding.
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is the most common technology used for rapid prototyping. While 3D printing is useful for a range of applications, other processes can also be used to create working prototypes. Most prototyping methods can be described as either subtractive or compressive, with the former involving a carving-type process such as milling or grinding and the latter involving a solidification process such as casting or molding.
Regardless of the technology used, rapid prototyping helps to iron out problems by creating a tight feedback loop between design and manufacture. Rapid prototyping using 3D printing and other technology allows you to actualize abstract ideas and test out design principles before making a significant investment. Also, rapid prototyping enables you to showcase your ideas to clients and stakeholders to maximize potential investment and shorten time to market.
While rapid prototyping is useful in most situations, it has some disadvantages for certain types of products. As a prominent technology used in rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing still lacks in strength and flexibility compared to other forms of production. CNC machining, casting, grinding, and molding technologies are popular techniques, especially for products and components that are likely to experience stresses and strains.
Examples of rapid prototyping include 3D printing, paper prototypes, stereolithography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS), and selective laser melting (SLM), among others. For electronic products, rapid prototyping often uses off-the-shelf microcontrollers and breadboards to prototype product internals and additive manufacturing to model product cases.
Prototyping allows you to test your ideas, change your designs, and showcase your product without the significant costs associated with full-scale manufacture.
Rather than getting involved with guesswork or wasting money testing designs yourself, you can get predictable functionality and cost projections with a prototype from MicroType Engineering. Our approach is transparent and easy to manage. Because we control everything from design to assembly, we can deliver faster results and provide a cheaper end-to-end solution.
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