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3D printing and rapid prototyping technology (RPT) is on the verge of improving product availability for consumers. The technology once employed only by manufacturing industries is about to become available for customer use in their home or small business. Rapid prototyping technology will give an almost limitless ability for production to the average consumer. Just imagine that you have lost a button to your favorite suit or dress and there’s no time to purchase another. Is there a way to solve it? Once produced you sew it on and you are on your way. 3D printing is able to apply this rapid prototyping technology for the consumer and in a variety of applications. The technology for 3D printers is computer assisted design software instructing the printer to build a 3 dimensional model step by step until an exact reproduction is produced. Just think of the possibilities for consumers that 3D printers using rapid prototyping technology proposes, they are too vast to number.

3D Printing used for 3D Toys and Models. The use of 3D printing for making toys and models for the customer right in their home is only one of many applications of rapid prototyping technology. In this application the consumer would purchase or download a (CAD) software package for the toy they wanted to make and upload it into the hard-drive. One of many models of 3D printing could then begin to manufacture the toy or model for the consumer. Options such as customizing monograms or colors for the lucky recipient of the toy would be available to the customer. In a short period of time a customized toy would be ready for packaging, wrapping and gift giving. That special train or model car that you couldn’t locate for purchase could be produced by 3D printing and rapid prototyping technology. 3D printing would really open up a lot of alternatives for consumers if it comes to producing just the right toys or models.

3D printing: the advantages of rapid prototyping in the home. As the implications for 3D printing and rapid prototyping continue to unfold the ramifications for the customer to manufacture products at home are immense. If a new household item is desired by the consumer they can simply purchase a CAD file, upload it and copy it. Maybe that new kitchen tool seen on television appeals to the customer, 3D printers have the capability to produce it right in the home. Or maybe a birthday is coming up and you saw the perfect gift, 3D printers can create that gift with rapid prototyping technique (more illustrations can be see at materialise.com/rapid-prototyping).

As we show it at Rapid Prototyping Website, rapid prototyping technology and 3D printings open up a whole host of new options by allowing the consumer to play a larger role in the design and manufacture of products they wish to purchase. Please visit Rapid Prototyping Website to see how 3D printing lets consumers to customize, design and manufacture many products on their own and in their own homes.

Technology prototyping, rapid prototyping, rapid prototyping of toys, Technology, toys

The ongoing distribution of JavaME-capable mobile phones makes it no longer necessary for developers to become smartphone specialists with a profound knowledge in hardware and OS. Mobile software development should be simple to learn and quick results are the main goal.

A severe aspect when building a first prototype based on an initial, promising idea is to use the right tools. The production setup should be done rapidly. The workflows must be easy to learn and to handle. All that is what Python is well-known for and that makes it an attractive opportunity for testing user interfaces, impulsive ideas or rapid prototyping on smartphones in general.

Building stand-alone applications which can be installed on a device similar to native applications, is as well possible. And to underline the strong relation to the native programming language, C++ code snippets can be embedded within conventional modules.

In many existent an approach for developing Python applications for the S60 platform is demonstrated. Of course rapid prototyping is one of many methods to produce and deploy scripts on the target and the community is still working on even more effective instruments to make this process more comfortable for the developer. Compared to the JavaME and Symbian platforms, there is still no IDE available, which combines coding and deployment. Nevertheless, the available tools present a wide range of opportunities to produce applicable software which is, from a functional point of view, comparable to other mobile platforms. Nokia’s Python port is restricted to S60 2nd and 3rd Edition phones, which is only a fractional amount compared to the phone support of JavaME.

The mentioned aspects result in a disadvantage, due to the fact that Python is an interpreted language- the performance is much poorer. At Rapid Prototyping Website we demonstrate the results of performance measurements about PyS60 and JavaME. Maybe Python is also not the top language for implementing a commercial application. The plain text of the application’s code is right there for everyone to access. As you can see from Rapid Prototyping Website, even when packaging a Python script in stand-alone form using rapid prototyping, the code is accessible in script of the interpreter at runtime. However, many mobile platform developers use PyS60 to prototype products before producing commercial software, especially when trying to access features on the phone like camera and networking or performing GUI experiments.

The power of rapid prototyping is that it allows very easy access to these elements in a few lines of code. It is a straightforward way of developing a proof of concept on which one can quickly try ideas (you may view examples at materialise.com). So Python is best suited to custom programs, for specific interests or generating user interfaces, if needed in a short span of time for e.g. customer presentations. Python for S60 is supposed to be an upcoming competitor for native applications and if not used for high-performance applications it is definitely more than just a tool for rapid prototyping.

Technology mobile platforms, prototyping, rapid prototyping, rapid prototyping of mobile phones, Technology

Abstract Mobile application production has become more and more important during the last couple of years since the number of devices increases quickly and the capabilities of phones enable a new variety of services. This trend requires new opportunities for creating innovative software in an efficient and comfortable manner. With Python for S60 (PyS60), Nokia brought the Python programming language to S60 phones, which offers new ways of mobile application development and rapid prototyping. This article gives an introduction to PyS60, deals with the development process of applications and explains differences to common approaches when using the native Symbian C++ or JavaME platform.

The number of smartphones on the market has been increasing continually over the last couple of years, due to the changing way that people connect, interact and work. There is a need in small mobile devices and the ability to provide anytime, anywhere access to information in a simple and effective way. According to iSuppli1 analysts, there have been 2.7 billion cellular subscribers globally in 2009 and forecasts about 3 billion subscribers by end of 2010. Perhaps this market is growing faster than every other technologic sector. This increasing amount of devices associates the need of new services and applications along with platforms on which they are developed and deployed. As you can see at Rapid Prototyping Website, nowadays the mobile phone has become a multimedia all-rounder, which enables the user to make photos and videos, enter the world-wide web or using it as a multimedia player.

Since the beginning of this trend, far-sighted software developers began to write applications for mobile platforms, to benefit from an upcoming industry of rapid prototyping. The drawbacks of the huge amount of possibilities offered by the mobile platforms are recognized. Limited hardware-capabilities, low CPU speed and small displays require clever software concepts and remarkable development skills, to make an application be efficient or suitable. At Rapid Prototyping Website we may show you how different software platforms are established among the variety of phone manufacturers. Some build on their personal proprietary operating system whereas others employ published platforms, which enable third party developers to use native APIs to access phone-specific capabilities for their applications. Among these, Symbian OS, developed by the Symbian Ltd.2, turned out to be one of the key players on the market. But this great mobile platform comes along with the drawbacks of handling high-performance idioms of the C++ programming language, which was used to write the operating system itself.

The solution was Python for S60 (PyS60), an interpreted script language port for Symbian OS mobile phones. As you may see at www.materialise.com, Python is known for its simple concepts and slim language specification of around 100 pages. But not only beginners should take advantage from this opportunity of rapid prototyping. The easy approach could make fast and conceptual development possible for even the experienced ones.

Technology mobile platforms, prototyping, rapid prototyping, rapid prototyping of mobile phones, Technology

What has happened? How could we lose the process view? Specialization! Since the beginning of this century, specialization has made barriers between the different functional areas. Everyone has become a specialist. This is owing to the incredible amount of knowledge an individual must utilize in their function. What have we lost owing to this specialization? We have lost the ability to look at a problem from a broader viewpoint. This myopia, this single minded target in automotive industry created the wall between Design Engineering and Manufacturing.

What have we re-gained? Multi-functional teams can create a better product in less time and lower total cost than each of the individual groups working independently.

An example is the automotive industry which brings product, process, and production teams together at the beginning of the design phase. Equipment and part vendors, marketing, sales and distribution are also included on the team. They collaborate on each phase of the design process. A sample result of the rapid prototyping utilization: GM Canada manufactured a new sports car engine in 4 years rather than the usual 7 years. An example from a Hewlett-Packard team effort produced a new printer, conceived and brought to a high volume market in under a year from the traditional 3 year development cycle period.

“… the single most important reason for delays in production activities is the absence of multi-functional (and outsider) envisions on development projects from the start”, Quote from Tom Peters book Thriving on Chaos ­ Handbook for a Management Revolution.

One objective of DFM is improved communication, either through electronic means or face-to-face. An advantage of the flow of information from a CAD system is that the geometry is passed directly to a post processor that creates the program for a arithmetical control (NC) machine and the tooling used to verify the part is done correctly. Alternatively, the information can be passed to a rapid prototyping instrument (aka 3D Fax machine) or a simulation program to verify component design. This electronic communication can happen side by side or around the world. It helps improve the messaging between the designer, the manufacturing engineer and the mechanism operator.

Output from the CAD system can also be developed through a Computerized Process Planning (CAPP) system to create operator instructions for the rapid prototyping instrument. At Rapid Prototyping Website we can demonstrate how these may be displayed when needed at the operator’s computer or via a wireless interface to a portable device. No more lost or obsolete drawings!

A product that pulls all the information in the manufacturing knowledge base together with the other elements mentioned above with reference to Rapid Prototyping Website, achieves DFM via another acronym, CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) or otherwise CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) or else PIM (Product Information Management).

There are many products in automotive industry that provide excellent examples of this state of art combination. Visit Rapid Prototyping Website to see how the artificial intelligence and natural language are being used to simplify their use.

Technology automotive, prototyping, rapid prototyping, rapid prototyping in automotive industry, Technology

Innovate Faster. Today’s economy, more than ever, compels innovation and a rapid succession of new models in order to remain vital and profitable in the market. The aptitude to reduce development cycles and development costs can be obtained by sharing expensive engineering capabilities, and dynamic, cost-effective collaborations to design quickly and efficiently more and multiple products. Effectively using the latest rapid prototyping technology including 3D design to suit your exact needs can help produce more accurate, more complex designs at the automotive industry in shorter lead times at an average of 22% and reduce non-conformance issues up to 40% when compared to standard 2D methods.

Collaborate Better. Effective and early collaboration is absolutely critical, with up to 70% of a product’s total lifecycle costs being figured out during the early phases of product development. Having a vendor that understands the demands and challenges of the product rapid prototyping development process and is able to help meet those challenges lends itself to quicker innovation capacity and capability. Even when you are already implementing the latest CAD in-house, a professional design services firm can provide the ability to increase your powers by seamlessly integrating with your team to handle the demand with focused expertise.

Manage data Effectively. The development of new automotive industry products and methods is no easy task. A host of design, product, and process data must be captured and managed. The better managed, and more this data can be condensed into an easy-to-search repository, the higher the quality of development process that can be achieved and the more this data can be leveraged for future designs. Vital to this end is the creation of fully associative 2D production drawings, 3D solid models and additionally 3D visualizations, rapid prototyping models, BOM’s, products with several configurations and model variants, simulations and investigation reports, and project management documents such as amendment lists and drawing lists.

Manage Engineering Changes. Engineering changes naturally occur at a rapid rate during the design, assembly, and testing phases. A change to the project can affect many documents. Utilizing the latest CAD technology is able to help avoid costly mistakes by ensuring that changes made anywhere within the process automatically update all product data, including parts, assemblies, and systems drawings.

With engineering services proposed at materialise.com you can analyze the physical performance of designs through simulation to improve time to market and minimize errors later in the development cycle, conduct quick stress analyses to make sure that parts can carry anticipated loads, improve automotive industry designs by reducing weight without sacrificing strength. Collision detection can be invaluable, particularly in the engine area where clearances can be a major issue. These capabilities help reduce developments cost by decreasing the number of required physical prototypes.

At Rapid Prototyping Website we effectively harness the parametric design solutions and sound engineering principles to cut costly mistakes. Driven by passion, www.materialise.com is focused on creating long term relationships that provide value for our clients and ourselves. Please contact us if you are interested in such a partnership or any of our services.

Technology automotive, prototyping, rapid prototyping, rapid prototyping in automotive industry, Technology