Would you pay US$490,000 for a photocopier? You might be tempted by Cubital's Soldier 5600, which can "print" solid objects, complete with moving parts. Topping the list in complexity and price, the Soldier is one of half a dozen systems that dominate the burgeoning, multibillion-dollar rapid prototyping industry.
Rapid prototyping devices convert CAD files into 3-D objects. Like a turkey slicer at a deli, the software "slices" the CAD design into layers a few thousandths of an inch thick. Then lasers, ultraviolet lamps, or ink-jet printer heads cut, sinter, expose, or glue the layers together, building the object slice by slice. Common materials include ceramic, waxes, nylon powders, photo-reactive resins, and even butcher paper.
Crankshafts, skulls, air foils, you name it; it has probably been prototyped with one of these techniques. The J. Paul Getty Museum has used a 3-D scanner and prototyping device to copy a rare artifact, and doctors use computed tomography data to manufacture custom prosthetic implants.
Increasingly, rapid prototyping is used to generate original patterns for production casting - check out the exhaust manifolds on the Dodge Viper's V-10. Jim Royer of Chrysler explains that using a prototype to determine the geometry of the manifolds saved several weeks and thousands of dollars over conventional methods.
Rapid prototyping devices cost anywhere from $80,000 to almost half a million dollars. Expensive, but not out of reach for small start-up ventures, according to Terry Wholers, a rapid prototyping consultant who points to a number of successful service bureaus that began as one- or two-person operations. While one industry insider claims that within 15 years, home-based machines will be able to conjure up anything from toothbrushes to diamond brooches, Wholers is more circumspect, predicting industry growth rates of 30 to 40 percent. Cubital: +1 (313) 585 7880.
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