A prototype is one or several functional prototypes that are made based on product appearance drawings or structural drawings without opening a mold, and are used to check the rationality of appearance or structure. Usually, newly developed or designed products need to be prototyped. Prototype is the first step to verify the feasibility of the product. It is the most direct and effective way to find out the defects, shortcomings and disadvantages of the designed product, so as to make targeted improvements to the defects., until no deficiencies can be found in individual prototype samples.
There are three commonly used methods for making prototype models: CNC processing, 3D printing and silicone replica molding. Each processing method has different characteristics. You should choose which production method according to the requirements of your own product.
CNC processing
The prototype model produced in this way has high accuracy. If you have higher accuracy requirements, it is recommended to choose CNC processing. The processing materials mainly include: ABS, PC, PMMA, PA, POM, PE, bakelite, aluminum alloy, stainless steel, and brass. etc. PC and PMMA are used for processing prototypes of transparent parts. PC is in a semi-transparent state and PMMA is in a fully transparent state.
Silicone replica mold
Generally, the method of vacuum silicone molding is used. The production cycle of silicone molding is short and the price is cheap. Under normal circumstances, the service life of the silicone mold is about 10 times. Under vacuum conditions, the castables are degassed, stirred, heat, injection, and secondary solidification molding in a constant temperature oven; suitable for small batch prototype production, the cost is lower than CNC processing, but the quality is not as good as CNC processing.
3D printing
It is laser rapid prototyping. Both production methods, such as SLA/SLS, are 3D printing. In the current 3D printing technology, metal materials can be used, but the surface effect is relatively rough, which is more suitable for processing prototypes with complex appearance and structure. It can produce prototypes that cannot be processed by CNC.