Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Tooling and Reverse Engineering

From Biological Models to 3D Bioprinters

Kaushik Kumar, Divya Zindani, J. Paulo Davim

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783110663457
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Maschinenbau

This book introduces the role of Rapid Prototyping Techniques within the product development phase. It deals with the concept, origin, and working cycle of Rapid Prototyping Processes with emphasis on the applications. Apart from elaboration of engineering and non-engineering applications, it highlights recent applications like Bio-Medical Models for Surgical Planning, Molecular Models, Architectural Models, Sculptured Models, Psycho-Analysis Models. Special emphasis has been provided to the technique of generating human organs from live cells/tissues of the same human named 3D BIO PRINTERS. As the Rapid Prototyping Techniques are for tailor made products and not for mass manufacturing hence the book also elaborates on the mass manufacturing of rapid prototyped products. This includes casting and rapid tooling. The book concludes with Reverse Engineering and the role played by Rapid Prototyping Techniques towards the same.

With globalization of market and advances in science and technology, the life span of products has shortened considerably. For early realization of products and short development period, engineers and researchers are constantly working together for more and more efficient and effective solutions. The most effective solution identified has been usage of computers in both designing and manufacturing. This gave birth to the nomenclatures CAD (Computer Aided Designing) and CAM (Computer aided Manufacturing). This was the initiation that ensured short product development and realization period. Researchers coined the concept as Rapid Prototyping. In contrast to Prototyping, Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design ( CAD ) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing or "additive or subtractive layer manufacturing" technology.

The first methods for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a wide range of applications and are used to manufacture production-quality parts in relatively small numbers if desired without the typical unfavorable short-run economics. This economy has encouraged online service bureaus for early product realization or physical products for actual testing.

This book is expected to contain Seven Chapters. Chapter 1 would explain product life cycle and the product development phase in the same, introducing role of Rapid Prototyping Techniques in Product development phase. Chapter 2 would deals with the concept, origin and working cycle of Rapid Prototyping Processes. Chapter 3 would concentrates on the applications of Rapid Prototyping Technology. Apart from elaboration of engineering and non-engineering applications, it also elaborates on recent applications like Bio-Medical Models for Surgical Planning, Molecular Models, Architectural Models, Sculptured Models, Psycho-Analysis Models etc. Chapter 4 would introduce the various Rapid Prototyping systems available worldwide. The chapter also introduces the technique of generating human organs from live cells/tissues of the same human named 3D BIO PRINTERS hence ensuring low rejection rate by human body. As the Rapid Prototyping Techniques are for tailor made products and not for mass manufacturing hence Chapter 5 would elaborates on the mass manufacturing of rapid prototyped products. This includes Casting and Rapid Tooling. Chapter 6 would deal with Reverse Engineering and the role played by Rapid Prototyping Techniques towards the same. As the product realization is primarily dependent on various softwares which are required to be understood for better accuracy so the concluding chapter of the book i.e. Chapter 7 would explain some software associated with the various techniques.

Chapter 1 Product life cycle

1.1 Introduction

Product is the physical representation of any concept or any idea in the form of three-dimensional objects that can be used to satisfy the requirements of the potential customer base. From marketing point of view, a product is a representation of concrete ideas that can be recommended to a market so that it can satisfy requirements of its potential clients. In the retail field the products are known as merchandise. From the perspective of manufacturing sector, anything that is brought as a raw material and then converted and sold in the market as finished good is a product. The term commodity encompasses a wide spectrum of material ranging from any raw material to anything that is widely available in the market. For instance, the metals or the agricultural product or any other product can be termed as commodity. Products can be defined in the domain of project management as the elements and deliverables that contribute to the entire project and as such delivers the objectives and goals of the project. In insurance discipline, the products are the policies that are offered for sale by the insurance company. A broader spectrum of goods encompasses the definition of products in the field of economics and commerce. Political economist Adam Smith was the first to use the economic meaning of a product.

The two main categorization of a product are tangible and intangible. A tangible product is a physical representation of concrete ideas that one can feel by sense of touch. Some of the examples of tangible products are building, gadget, clothing or vehicle. On the other hand, the physical representation of ideas that one can feel indirectly is called intangible product, an insurance policy for instance. One can further classify intangible products into virtual digital goods (VDG) and real digital goods (RDG). VDG, such as JPEG and MP3 files, are the ones that are located virtually on an operating system. These are accessible to users as conventional file types. Such type of goods may be subjected to license and/or rights of digital transfer. On the other hand, the elements that exist within the environment of data program and are independent of the conventional file type are termed as RDG. RDG are viewed commonly as three-dimensional objects or as a presentational item that can be controlled easily by the user. Open-source codes can be used to convert the basic VDG into process-oriented RDG. Android and GNU/Linux are few among the available open-source codes. Application process or service in the manufactured domain may be seen on the operating system such as the personal data assistant. These may be also visualized on the other available hand-held tangible devices.

Before a product is developed, it is necessary to note that products can be of three levels:

1. Core product
2. Actual product
3. Augmented product

New product development is basically a mammoth part of any manufacturing process. Most enterprises comprehend that all products have a limited life cycle, so new products need to be manufactured to replace the old products so that the company always remains in business. Developing a new product entails a number of phases that typically centered on the following key areas:

The idea: Every product has to incept with an idea or a concept. In some of the situations, the ideas may exist already in the open market and in other cases, it may be pretty complex meaning that the idea generation part of the process is much more involved leading to the generation of something revolutionary and unique. In fact, there are many industrial units or organizations that have a dedicated department that focuses solely on generation of new ideas and then converting those ideas into a new product that can be launched in the open market.

Research: The next step is to start researching the market once an organization has selected the best of ideas for a new product from the large number of available alternatives. The thorough research enables the organization to see if there’s likely to be a demand for the new type of product, and also what specifications need to be developed in order to best meet the needs of the potential customer base.

Development: The next phase is the development of the new product. Prototypes may be altered through various iterations of design and manufacturing stages in order to come up with a finished product that meets the need of the potential customer base.

Testing: Most companies will test their new product with a small group of actual consumers from the potential customer base, before launching its new product in the market because the manufacturer spends a huge amount of money on production and promotion. This helps to make sure of the viability of product in the market that will be profitable. Also it makes sure that there are no changes that need to be made before a new product is launched.

Analysis: Analysis of the feedback from consumer and testing enables the manufacturer to make any vital changes to the product. It also helps in deciding as to how the product will be launched in the market. With valuable information from consumers, the manufacturer will be able to build a number of strategic decisions such as what price to sell at and how the product will be marketed which will be crucial to the product’s success.

Introduction: Finally, introduction of the product to the market is done when the new product has made it all the way through the new product development stage. In order to ensure that the manufacturer makes the most of all their effort and investment, a good product life cycle management (PLM) is necessary.

Thousands of new products are put on sale every year. It is about managing the product once it has been launched and then throughout its lifetime, which is a key to creating a profitable product. Making sure the product life cycle curve is as long and profitable as possible, the PLM process entails a range of different marketing and production strategies.

1.2 Product development phase in product life cycle

The product life cycle describes the stages a new product goes through in the marketplace: development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

In industry, PLM may be defined as the management process that aids in the management of entire life cycle of product. The management process takes care of the different stages of product life cycle beginning from the inception and then passing through the engineering design and fabrication phase and then terminating at the service and the discard phase of the fabricated products. As such, PLM provides a backbone for the organizations and their extended enterprise in the form of product information by integrating people, data, processes and business systems. The inspiration for PLM came from American Motors Corporation (AMC). There was an atmosphere of competition and every automaker company wanted to have a competitive edge. According to François Castaing, Vice President for Product Engineering and Development, AMC was also looking forward to have a competitive edge in this atmosphere of competition. AMC exploited the benefits of PLM, which led to the acceleration of its product development process. Saving production time by increasing the production efficiency of its workforce was one of the motives of AMC toward faster product development. This was achieved with the aid of computer-aided design (CAD) software systems. Another was to have a system in place that could lead to alteration in the product with the involvement of least cost. This could have also lead to improvement in the product at each and every step of design process. An effective product data management was employed to do away with the conflicts and thereby helped in reducing cost in making any alterations. As a result, Chrysler was able to gain a competitive edge over its competitors and therefore became the auto industry’s leader after early adoption of PLM technology.

Product development (NPD) is the process in business and engineering, of bringing a new product to market. The process of developing a new product aims to convert the available market opportunity into a ready for sale product. The product developed may be tangible or intangible. The important factors leading to the success of the new product in the market are good understanding of customer needs and requirements, the competitive environment and the nature of the market. Based on the three variables of cost, time and quality, which drives the customer needs, the best strategies and practices are established by the organizations by taking the requirements of customers into consideration. With the new approaches, the organizations tend to enhance their market share through continuous product development process aiding them in coming up with the new products. Companies face many uncertainties and challenges throughout the process of product development. The main concerns for the management of NPD process are the employment of best practices and the elimination of barriers to communication.

The product development process consists of different activities that are employed by firms in the intricate process of supplying new products to the market. Each and every new product passes through a number of stages starting from idea and concept generation and then going through design and manufacturing finally leading to market introduction. The product development process basically has four main stages which have been discussed next:

1. Fuzzy front-end. There are group of activities that are required to ensure the achievement of complete product specifications and requirements. As such, these activities are required to be defined accurately so that product can be developed with due consideration to customer requirements. Requirements should be able to meet the market or business needs through the product.
2. Product design. It is the development of effective and detailed-level design of the product, which will answer to the question that what requirements should a product have that will meet the market and business needs specifically. From the point of view of the marketing and planning, this step ends at precommercialization analysis stage.
3. Product implementation. In this phase, the detailed engineering drawing of electrical or mechanical hardware is being carried out. Likewise the software engineering of software or embedded software, or detailed design of soft goods or other product forms is being effectively carried out in this phase. Also, any test that may be required, in order to validate the prototype of the thought out objects that will actually meet the design specifications and hence fulfill the market and business requirements, may also be designed priori.
4. Fuzzy back-end. This is also known as the commercialization phase. This phase consists of the action steps leading to the production and thereby the market launch.

Engineering design is the iterative procedure carried out to obtain a technical solution to solve a problem at hand. The engineering design stage is a very vital stage because at this stage much of the costs relating to the product life cycle are engaged. According to the researchers, it is in the product design stage that 70% of the cost relating to the entire product life cycle and 70–80% of the quality of the final product are evaluated, therefore it is the design-manufacturing interface that provides for the greatest opportunity for cost reduction. The time frame for which design projects are carried out ranges from a few weeks to 3 years, averaging nearly a year or so. When the high-level design is terminated, prototypes of the same will be manufactured by the manufacturing plant. Implementation of practices such as quality function deployment (QFD) and design for manufacturing (DFM)/design for assembly (DFA) is done for developing a concurrent engineering approach. Product and process specifications are the output of the design phase which is mostly in the form of drawings, and the sale ready product is the output of manufacturing. Generally, the design team will develop technical drawings comprising specifications representing the product that will meet the business and market demands, and will send the technical drawings to the manufacturing plant for further execution in order to obtain the sale ready product. Deciphering product/process problems is of utmost priority in case of projects relating to information communication because if any changes are made after the release of the product then 90% of the development effort must be discarded.

The views about new product development differ from industry to industry. Most industry leaders perceive new product development as an ardent process where resources are allocated for identifying changes in the market and capture the opportunities in the potential market before they arrive. This is in contrast to a reactive strategy in which no action is taken until problems occur or any other competitor introduces a new product or any innovation in the market. New product development is seen as an ongoing process for many industry leaders (usually referred to as continuous development) in which the entire enterprise is always looking for opportunities.

There are several models for new product development. Industries have the option of choosing the best among these to suit their requirement. Most of these models are rather similar. Phases of one of the most popular model describing hardware-oriented products can be discussed as follows. There is a wide range of product base for the industries including nontechnical and software-based products. Similar models would delineate any form of product.

1.2.1 Phase 1: conceive

1.2.1.1 Meaning: idea generation, specify, plan and innovate

Determination of the requirements that a product should have is the first stage of the new product development model. Viewpoints of customer, market, company and regulatory bodies can lead to systematically obtaining the requirements that a product is required to have. From these requirements, the technical specifications to the product can be derived. And these technical specifications can in turn lead to technical parameters for the product. Further, analysis is carried out to define the aesthetics of the product. This is done by carrying out the initial high-level design work, which also leads to defining of the functionality of the product. 3D computer-aided software packages are employed to accomplish the above-mentioned processes. Even clay models can be handy.

Necessary investments are to be done on research and evaluation to have a number of alternatives to a product. This can be included in the conception phase, for example, investment in bringing the technology to the desired level of maturity. It is also possible that something may not work out at any phase. In some cases this may be all the way back to conception phase. Therefore, life cycle engineering process is an iterative process, where evaluation of different processes is carried out at each and every step of the new product development.

1.2.2 Phase 2: design

1.2.2.1 Delineate, define, develop, test, analyze and validate

After defining the different designing parameters in phase 1, a further detailin...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter 1 Product life cycle
• Chapter 2 Rapid prototyping processes
• Chapter 3 Applications of rapid prototyping processes
• Chapter 4 Rapid prototyping/manufacturing processes
• Chapter 5 Mass manufacturing from rapid prototyped products
• Chapter 6 Reverse engineering using rapid prototyping
• Chapter 7 3D bioprinting
• Glossary
• Index