3t RPD
Case Study
The following article, regarding New Greenham Park based 3t RPD, originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2004 edition of SEEDA’s “Hub Magazine”.
A Bluffer’s Guide to... Rapid Prototyping
Tim Plunkett, CEO of 3t RPD Ltd gives it to you in plain English. Sort of.
To be honest rapid prototyping sounds like the work of a proficient secretary.
Not exactly. It’s the process that provides a previously unavailable link from computer data to physical object, irrespective of the complexity of the product in question.
Sorry, we started to drift off then.
Okay, try this. If someone has designed a new product, rapid prototyping is the very quick process used to actually make an accurate copy of the product so they can ensure they’ve got it right before they spend thousands on injection mouldings and discover they’ve made a costly mistake.
Better. So what sort of products are we talking?
The technique is a translation process that can be applied to any industry. We’ve produced everything from hip joints to new toys and engine parts for cars. They’re made out of nylon. It’s tough and durable and it’ll be very close to the production weight of the product.
So before rapid prototyping, was there such a thing as ’leisurely prototyping’?
It was certainly a much slower process. If you wanted to test a new design, you’d have had to take the drawings to a model maker. That could have taken four to six weeks for a component that we can now produce in three to four days.
So why the hurry? Come on, relax, man.
The quicker a company can get a new product to market, the more revenue they can generate. To say nothing of the greater market share they’ll end up with by getting there first. Whatever the field, nobody remembers who came second.
What if rapid isn’t fast enough? We’re in a hurry, we want supersonic prototyping.
The shorter you try and make the process, the more difficult it becomes. We’ve taken the bulk of the time out of the process yet we could go faster but that would mean the customer would have to pay a premium.
Are your parts fully functioning? So to speak.
The parts we make have a high level of functionality. We’re not just playing at this. We work with several F1 racing teams including Jordan. We’ve even put parts on a F1 racing car in a Grand Prix to test them.
That is extremely rapid. Phrases to drop?
Selective Laser Sintering. It’s the name given to the process where we build the object through a series of layers, using a computer guided laser to draw data onto a bed of fiercely heated powder.
Hit us with another. Come on, we can take it.
Stereolithography. It’s a similar process but it works with liquid resins rather than powders. Do you want me to give you some of the chemistry behind it?
No thanks, our ears have already started to bleed. As a lazy nation, where do we rank in this rapid prototyping malarkey?
Britain is right up there with the Americans and the Germans. And my company is at the forefront of what we’re doing.
How can we spot a rapid prototyping bluffer?
The key is to ask someone what they’ve been doing with the products they’ve made prototypes of. It’s not enough to just look at them. They should be assembling them with electronic motors, printed circuit boards and going out and physically testing these products. For instance, if the product was a vacuum cleaner you’d make 20 sets of the product, attach a motor and vacuum carpets with them for 5,000 hours to make sure the whole thing worked properly. That’s serious prototyping.
Do your staff members spend all day at work, rapidly running about?
It is frenetic yes. I like to think of it as controlled chaos - a constant juggling act to satisfy a stack of conflicting requirements.
So are you rapid in other areas of your life?
Er, it does spread into the rest of my life, yes. I wouldn’t like to describe the speed at which I drive.
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Visit the 3t RPD website
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Revision Number: 1.2 Created: 07/03/2005 13:06:00 Modified: 26/10/2005 10:45:39