Why Use Rapid Prototyping in Product Development?

Rapid Prototyping at 3ERP. 3ERP is a 3D printing and rapid prototyping company based in China. 3ERP is a full-service bureau that not only does 3D prints for customers but also has CNC services, Vacuum casting and injection molding. This means that 3ERP can be your service partner from prototype to small series right through to production. By working with the same team throughout you don’t waste time trying to find a new partner at every stage of your product’s development. 3ERP can build up a relationship with you and understand your needs from one product to a hundred to thousands. 3ERP can scale with you as your needs scale as well.

Using 3D printing for prototypes is the bedrock of the 3D printing industry. Rapid prototyping was the first application on the technology. Widely used today rapid prototypes let you get from an idea to a physical representation of that idea quickly. CAD files are printed into a model. This 3D printed model can also be manually finished to a very high standard and painted to accurately represent your intended final part. For many organizations, rapid prototyping is an essential part of their design process. Already ingrained for many years these companies are used to working with outsourced companies to provide them with timely prototypes. Other firms have never really tried the technology before. What are the advantages exactly of using rapid prototyping in your product development process?

Rapid Prototyping makes ideas visible and discussions concrete. Companies can save a lot of time because everyone can now see and discuss the next product. A very abstract idea that may be confusing to people becomes much more clear when it can be seen by all simultaneously.

Rapid Prototyping ads a tactile element to meetings. Furthermore, a future product can be truly experienced through holding it. By touching and passing around a product a better memory and a deeper understanding is formed. This is especially valuable when pitching products at external or internal meetings.

Rapid Prototyping can be used to test and validate ideas. Focus groups, co-workers, clients, and distributors can all be shown a rapid prototype. They can be asked how they feel towards the product and whether they like the design or experience of it.

Rapid Prototypes can be used to make marketing materials and photos. Many companies use rapid prototypes for the initial photography for brand campaigns, campaigns to distributors, internal literature and manuals. By having the photos months before the product is ready teams can concurrently work on speeding up the design process.

Rapid Prototyping reduces mistakes. Major blunders, mistakes, design errors and problems can be avoided by using rapid prototyping. A team can early on discover for example that their product will never work as anticipated. Something that very well may look OK on a screen could be hideous or completely oversized in real life. Designs can be iteratively improved through several stages of prototypes and discussions to get much more feedback on products. In this way, rapid prototypes let teams iron out and perfect parts before production.

If you are interested in learning about rapid prototyping services, contact 3ERP today.