Manufacturing Efficient Rapid Prototyping R&D

摘要

Rapid prototyping (RP) developed in the 1980s has evolved from a tool to make factory molds/dies to a low-volume technique to make finished parts, and consumer product prototypes. One type of RP machine turns computer models into parts by creating thin layer upon layer of powdered metal or plastic, fusing each layer into a solid. Scanning a laser back and forth within a part's often intricate outline does the sintering. This approach often takes hours to build a large three-dimensional (3D) shape. Behrokh Khoshnevis, professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California, has a better idea.