PROTOMA MEETING

ESTSetúbal, June 2003

RAPID PROTOTYPING TECHNOLOGY

WHAT IS RAPID PROTOTYPING?RAPID PROTOTYPING (RP) IS ONE OF THE FASTEST DEVELOPING MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE WORLD TODAY. IT IS DIFFERENT TO THE CONVENTIONAL FABRICATION PROCESSES (I.E. SUBTRACTIVE TYPE AS MILLING OR COMPRESSIVE TYPE LIKE CASTING AND MOULDING). UNLIKE THOSE PROCESSES RP IS OF ADDITIVE TYPE, BECAUSE PARTS ARE BUILT ON A LAYER-BY-LAYER BASIS.

THE PROTOTYPES CAN BE MADE FROM PLASTIC, PAPER, WAX, CERAMICS AND METALS, AND, IN GENERAL, RP SYSTEMS CAN BE CLASSIFIED INTO THREE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BASED ON THE INITIAL FORM OF MATERIALS USED: LIQUID-BASED (e.g. SL); SOLID-BASED (e.g. LOM) AND POWDER-BASED (e.g. SLS).

THE MOST

IMPORTANT RP

TECHNOLOGIES

SLS FDMSLA

THE THREE MOST USED RP PROCESSESTHE THREE MOST USED RP PROCESSES

INDUSTRIES BEING SERVED

Other8,7%Government/ military

6,9%

Academic institutions6,7%

Medical10,1%

Consumer products25,5%

Business machines9,6%

Aerospace 8,6%

Motor vehicles23,8%

RP IN INDUSTRYRP IN INDUSTRY

HOW RP MODELS ARE BEING USED

Quoting 1,4%

Proposals 3,6%

Patterns for prototype

tooling 13,4%

Patterns for cast metal 6,3%

Direct tooling inserts 3,7%

Other 3,8%

Ergonomic studies

4,6%Fit/assembly

18,2%

Visual aids for toolmakers 5,4%

Visual aids for engineering

16,9%

Functional models 22,7%

RP APLLICATIONSRP APLLICATIONS

RP TECHNOLOGIES EXISTENT IN PORTUGAL

(SL) - STEREOLITHOGRAPHY (2): At AGILTEC (Lisbon) and CADFORM (Marinha Grande);

(SLS) - SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING OF PLASTICS, METALS AND SAND (3): At CENTIMFE and SOCEM (Marinha Grande), and CINFU (Porto);

(FDM) – FUSED DEPOSITION MODELLING (2): At CINDOR (Gondomar) and KLC (Marinha Grande);

(DMLS) – DIRECT METAL LASER SINTERING (1): At INETI (Lisbon);

(LOM) – LAMINATED OBJECT MANUFACTURING (2): At INEGI(Porto) and OCC Guimarães);

(TDP) – THREE DIMENSIONAL PRINTING (1): At UM (Guimarães).

TOTAL: 11 (4 in Technologic Centres; 4 in Service Bureaus; 2 in Professional Training Centres, 1 in an University.

PROTOTYPES PRODUCED BY LOM

PROTOTYPES PRODUCED BY SLS

PROTOTYPES PRODUCED BY STEREOLITHOGRAPHY (SL)

INSERTS (STEEL) FOR INJECTION MOULDING

PROTOTYPES PRODUCED BY DIRECT METAL LASER SINTERING (DMLS)

EDM RAPID ELECTRODES PRODUCED BY RAPID PROTOTYPING