What is Rapid Prototyping?
Rapid Prototyping is the production of samples of parts with one-to-one or close strength by various methods to eliminate errors that may arise before mass production. It is possible to manufacture less-in-kind (such as 1-100) productions in a few hours or days, depending on the part geometry, compared to serial or pre-mass production. Basically, you can get your parts with 5 different production technologies.
How to do?
After the data is received, production technology is determined according to your needs and the performance you expect from the part and the production phase is started.
PRODUCTION WITH FDM TECHNIQUE
In Rapid Prototyping FDM technique, striped plastic raw material is transmitted to the extrusion head. Here, the material is heated and melted. The extrusion head pours the molten material into a drop-to-empty tray, forming the first layer to form the part. At each layer, the tray goes down a step, so the piece is built into layers. During construction, a separate structure is formed that acts as a support, and after the production is completed, this structure is removed from the part. The support is water soluble with new materials developed in recent years.
PRODUCTION WITH MJF TECHNIQUE
It was created by HP’s delivery of patented Multi Jet technology for fast printing in 2D printers to 3D printers. In practice, the steps that begin with the melting of PA12 powder from the reservoir with additives in 30 million droplets per second and the fusion of the layer continue with the additives catching the temperature. This cycle is repeated until the model appears. Although it is similar to SLS technology in technology, it produces much faster and more sensitive models. MJF Technology, which provides voxels on models, is able to produce the end product and mass-produce it with the appropriate costs per part.
PRODUCTION WITH SLA TECHNIQUE
Rapid Prototyping, Stereolithography technique is based on the principle of curing certain parts of the photopolymer resin layer, which is liquid at room temperature, by means of a point-based ultraviolet laser beam. The resin layer is plastered on the first one and the curing process continues in order to produce the part. After the layers are completed, the fragment is removed from the resin pool. When the part is formed, the structure that acts as a support is mechanically separated from the part. Photopolymer resins specific to this method are used as raw materials in stereolithography technology.
PRODUCTION WITH SLS TECHNIQUE
Rapid Prototyping, In SLS technology, the plastic material in powder form is scanned by moving laser beam using computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. The material in the scanned areas is sintered together, forming the first layer of the part. The second layer of dust is plastered on the first one and the sintering process continues in order to produce the part. After the layers are completed, the part is removed from the dust pool. The support structure is not used in this technology. Polyamide is often used as a construction material.
PRODUCTION WITH POLYJET TECHNIQUE
Rapid Prototyping, Polyjet technique is carried out on photopolymer resin injection heads in liquid form at room temperature. Material is sprayed from a 16 micron diameter 1536 nozzle on each injection head to form a layer on an empty tray. Sprayed raw material is solidified by freezing with ultraviolet lamps. In each layer, the tray goes down one step and the piece is constructed in layers. The raw materials used in polyjet systems are photopolymer resins specific to this method. It has a range of materials with very different thermal and mechanical properties.
PRODUCTION WITH DMLS TECHNIQUE
Rapid Prototyping, DMLS technology is the same as SLS technology and is transmitted by a laser beam moving over metal dust. The material in the scanned areas is sintered together, forming the first layer of the part. In this technology, conventional methods are used to separate the support structure as well as metal material. It is served with many different materials including ceramics and Ti6-4.