Technology

Why are so few parts in commercial products directly manufactured through rapid prototyping operations?

Public Comments

1. Rapid prototyping is wonderful for short runs of parts in limited quantity and for producing parts for testing in various ways including marketing. But the absolute production rate in parts per day is slow and the cost per part is relatively high vs mass production. Also, the parts, while strong enough, may not meet the strength or endurance requirements of the finished product - in a commercial product they would wear out or fail. So once all the problems have been solved, waiting several weeks for an expensive mold that will turn out 10,000 parts per day vs rapid making 1,000 or 100 by Friday, and make tough parts for a few dimes each vs. proto at a few dollars each is a good trade off.