37,888 research outputs found
The integration of rapid prototyping within industrial design practice
Three-dimensional appearance models represent an essential outcome of industrial design
practice, facilitating the origination, evaluation and specification of exterior form. As
manufacturers face increasing pressure to reduce time scales for new product development,
the production of such models using conventional fabrication techniques must be appraised.
As a means of economically translating digital geometry into one-off components, rapid
prototyping has the potential to contribute towards a reduction in lead times for the production
of appearance models. The objective of this research is to propose a methodological approach
for the effective integration of rapid prototyping within industrial design practice.
The field and practice of industrial design is defined, the technology of rapid prototyping
discussed, and their integration proposed through a draft computer-aided industrial
design/rapid prototyping (CAID/RP) methodological approach. This is exposed to practitioner
feedback, modified, and employed as a revised CAID/RP methodological approach during the
industrial design of a nylon line trimmer. The product outcome is used to compare and contrast
the production of an appearance model via rapid prototyping, an appearance prototype via
rapid prototyping, and an appearance model via conventional fabrication techniques.
Two issues arise from the use of the revised CAID/RP methodological approach: the
production of stl files and the lack of physical interaction with product form. In addition, the
emergence of rapid prototype sketch modelling systems following the line trimmer case study
provides an opportunity for further enhancement. A strategy for the resolution of these issues
is proposed, and their effectiveness evaluated through additional case studies. The resulting
CAID/RP methodological approach is subject to validation through practitioner interviews and a
normalised rating/weighting method. The positive feedback acknowledges the significance of
the CAID/RP methodological approach through a reduction in product development lead times
and enhancement of professional practice. The project makes a contribution to new knowledge
and understanding in the area of professional practice through the definition and validation of
operational paradigmatic change
Real time integration of user preferences into virtual prototypes
Within new product development (NPD), both virtual prototypes and physical prototypes play important roles in creating, testing and modifying designs. However, in the current design process, these two forms of prototyping methods are normally used independently and converted from one to the other during different design phases. This conversion process is time consuming and expensive and also introduces potential information loss/corruption problems. If the design process requires many iterations, it may simply be impractical to generate all the conversions that are theoretically required. Therefore, the integration of virtual and physical prototyping may offer a possible solution where the design definition is maintained simultaneously in both the virtual and physical environment. The overall aim of this research was to develop an interface or a tool that achieves real time integration of physical and virtual prototyping. “Real time integration” here means changes to the virtual prototypes will reflect any changes that have been made contemporaneously to the physical prototypes, and vice versa. Thus, conversion of the prototype from physical to virtual (or vice versa) will be achieved immediately, hence saving time and cost.
A review of the literature was undertaken to determine what previous research has been conducted in this area. The result of the review shows the research in this area is still in its infancy. The research hypothesis was developed through the use of a questionnaire survey. Totally 102 questionnaires were sent to designers, design directors or design managers to address the issue: will industrial designers want to make use of real time integration and if so, how? The outcome from the literature review drove further development of the research hypothesis and an initial pilot experiment to test this. The pilot trial was designed to address the research questions:
• Can real time physical and virtual prototyping integration be conveniently demonstrated?
• Will designers and users be comfortable using the integration method?
• Will users recognise the benefits of the integration?
The results showed that real time integration between physical and virtual prototyping is necessary in helping designers develop new products and for getting users more closely involved. The future research suggested is that more investigations and experiments are needed to explore a proper method that simultaneously employing these two types of prototyping in product development process.
Keywords:
Physical Prototyping; Virtual Prototyping; Integration; Real Time.</p
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Hybrid Prototypes to Assist Modeling Automotive Seats
The development of new modular seats is an important issue in the automotive industry.
However, is very time consuming and costly. Virtual models and hybrid prototypes could
accelerate the car seats development process. The hybrid prototypes are mainly manufactured by
rapid prototyping with multi materials. The objective of this paper is to establish a methodology
to develop innovative lightweight multi-functional, modular car seats to be used in Multi-Purpose
Vehicles (MPV), by means of FEA simulation and rapid prototyping additive/subtractive
technologies utilizing multi materials. A case study is presented to validate the developed
methodology. The manufactured hybrid prototype’s reproduces the main functionalities of the
MPV modular seat, namely its three key positions: normal, stored and table.Mechanical Engineerin
Virtual bloXing - assembly rapid prototyping for near net shapes
Virtual reality (VR) provides another dimension to many engineering applications. Its immersive and interactive nature allows an intuitive approach to study both cognitive activities and performance evaluation. Market competitiveness means having products meet form, fit and function quickly. Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RP&M) technologies are increasingly being applied to produce functional prototypes and the direct manufacturing of small components. Despite its flexibility, these systems have common drawbacks such as slow build rates, a limited number of build axes (typically one) and the need for post processing. This paper presents a Virtual Assembly Rapid Prototyping (VARP) project which involves evaluating cognitive activities in assembly tasks based on the adoption of immersive virtual reality along with a novel nonlayered rapid prototyping for near net shape (NNS) manufacturing of components. It is envisaged that this integrated project will facilitate a better understanding of design for manufacture and assembly by utilising equivalent scale digital and physical prototyping in one rapid prototyping system. The state of the art of the VARP project is also presented in this paper
A method to Formalise the Rapid Prototyping Process
Facing the increasing complexity of the product design area, (reduction of cycle times, introduction of simultaneous engineering, introduction of digital mock-up, ... ) a research department which wants to define a rapid prototyping process is confronted to the problem of the tools’ choice. Therefore, we will propose in this article, a method allowing to conceive such a process. In a first chapter, we present the rapid prototyping area in the product design environment, in a second chapter we will propose our method illustrated by an industrial case
Survey on Additive Manufacturing, Cloud 3D Printing and Services
Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the concept of using manufacturing resources in a
service oriented way over the Internet. Recent developments in Additive
Manufacturing (AM) are making it possible to utilise resources ad-hoc as
replacement for traditional manufacturing resources in case of spontaneous
problems in the established manufacturing processes. In order to be of use in
these scenarios the AM resources must adhere to a strict principle of
transparency and service composition in adherence to the Cloud Computing (CC)
paradigm. With this review we provide an overview over CM, AM and relevant
domains as well as present the historical development of scientific research in
these fields, starting from 2002. Part of this work is also a meta-review on
the domain to further detail its development and structure
3D printing device for numerical control machine and wood deposition
The paper presents the development of a new sustainable approach in additive manufacturing adapted on a Numerical Control (NC) machining. Wood has several advantages that are transferable to various derivatives allowing the introduction of sustainable material into the product lifecycle. The application involves the integration of wood pulp into rapid prototyping solutions. Wood is the main material studied for its ecological aspect. The primary goal was to create reconstituted wood objects through a rapid manufacturing. Additive manufacturing technology is most commonly used for modeling, prototyping, tooling through an exclusive machine or 3D printer. An overall review and an analysis of technologies show that the additive manufacturing presents some little independent solutions [9] [12]. The problem studied especially the additive manufacturing limits to produce an ecological product with materials from biomass. The study developed a 3d printing head as solution for shaping wood pulp or powder materials. Some technological problematic require enslavement to the NC controller, the programming building of model, and the realization of wood pulp. This work also presents a wood pulping process characterized by adding wood flour and starch. A machine implementation and some application examples used for its development are presented
What influences the speed of prototyping? An empirical investigation of twenty software startups
It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building
tangible prototypes and collecting user feedback on them. As prototyping is an
inevitable part of learning for early stage software startups, how fast
startups can learn depends on how fast they can prototype. Despite of the
importance, there is a lack of research about prototyping in software startups.
In this study, we aimed at understanding what are factors influencing different
types of prototyping activities. We conducted a multiple case study on twenty
European software startups. The results are two folds, firstly we propose a
prototype-centric learning model in early stage software startups. Secondly, we
identify factors occur as barriers but also facilitators for prototyping in
early stage software startups. The factors are grouped into (1) artifacts, (2)
team competence, (3) collaboration, (4) customer and (5) process dimensions. To
speed up a startups progress at the early stage, it is important to incorporate
the learning objective into a well-defined collaborative approach of
prototypingComment: This is the author's version of the work. Copyright owner's version
can be accessed at doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57633-6_2, XP2017, Cologne,
German
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Expanding Rapid Prototyping for Electronic Systems Integration of Arbitrary Form
An innovative method for rapid prototyping (RP) of electronic circuits with components
characteristic of typical electronics applications was demonstrated using an enhanced version of
a previously developed hybrid stereolithography (SL) and direct write (DW) system, where an
existing SL machine was integrated with a three-axis DW fluid dispensing system for combined
arbitrary form electronic systems manufacturing. This paper presents initial efforts at embedding
functional electronic circuits using the hybrid SL/DW system. A simple temperature-sensitive
circuit was selected, which oscillated an LED at a frequency proportional to the temperature
sensed by the thermistor. The circuit was designed to incorporate all the required electronic
components within a 2.5” x 2” x 0.5” SL part. Electrical interconnects between electronic
components were deposited on the SL part with a DW system using silver conductive ink lines.
Several inks were deposited, cured, and tested on a variety of SL resin substrates, and the E 1660
ink (Ercon Inc, Wareham, MA) was selected due to its measured lowest average resistivity on
the SL substrates. The finished circuit was compared with Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
technology for functionality. The electronic components used here include a low voltage battery,
LM 555 timer chip, resistors, a thermistor, capacitors, and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). This
circuit was selected because it (1) represented a simple circuit combining many typically used
electronic components and thus provided a useful demonstration for integrated electronic
systems manufacturing applicable to a wide variety of devices, and (2) provided an indication of
the parasitic resistances and capacitances introduced by the fabrication process due to its
sensitivity to manufacturing variation. The hybrid technology can help achieve significant size
reductions, enable systems integration in atypical forms, a natural resistance to reverse
engineering and possibly increase maximum operating temperatures of electronic circuits as
compared to the traditional PCB process. This research demonstrates the ability of the hybrid
SL/DW technology for fabricating combined electronic systems for unique electronics
applications in which arbitrary form is a requirement and traditional PCB technology cannot be
used.Mechanical Engineerin
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