Integrating Rapid Prototyping into Product and Process Development

摘要

Rapid prototyping concepts and skills are being taught to undergraduate manufacturingrnengineering students at Texas State University-San Marcos, not as an independent course, but as a part ofrnthe broad concept of product and process development. In such approach, students get a hands-onrnexperience in a variety of rapid prototyping processes such as FDM, LOM, Zcorp 3DP, and 3D system’srnInVision and they apply them in their industry-sponsored or research-based senior capstone designrnprojects. In such approach students get a good understanding about the specifications, cost, and quality ofrnthe parts fabricated by each rapid prototyping machine. They also learn how to select the optimumrnprocess for each component of their product. In this paper, teaching and assessment methods for suchrnlearning experience are explained and a few samples of the previous projects are presented.