Re: your opinions (right or wrong)

From: Allan Lightman (University of Dayton)
To: RP-ML
Date: Thursday, July 6, 1995
Subject: Re: your opinions (right or wrong)
When the companies were first founded the names (NCR, 3M, etc.) referred to 
their product lines, much as RP stood for rapid prototyping - at least in 
the hopes of those developing the machines.  As product lines evolved, many 
companies disociated themselves from the limitations implied by their full 
names and went to the acronyms only.  This "liberated" them from the baggage 
of the implications of their name.  NCR became a computer company, 3M does 
not focus on mining the minerals needed for sandpaper, etc.  In the same 
sense, RP machines could be used to refer to those additive material 
fabricators which enhance rapid product realization.  I think that RP might 
be left to stand on its own in a world in which many of the users are 
complaining that the technology is neither fast enough nor capable of 
directly producing true prototypes.

Allan Lightman
University of Dayton Research Institute
lightman@udri.udayton.edu