A users account of RP (longish)

From: André Dolenc (Helsinki University of Technology)
To: RP-ML
Date: Wednesday, September 6, 1995
Subject: A users account of RP (longish)
I would like to share with you a discussion I had with a friend who
works for a large multinational that manufacturers commonly used products
(please do not ask me to specify).
This company spends about DM 250K per year in prototypes. A summary of
our discussion is as follows:

1. They have 3 axis milling in-house. The impact of RP has not been
   significant. About 20-30% reduction in their use for prototypes has
   been noticed.

2. The most significant impact of RP has been seen in service bureaus
   that require a lot of manual labour, eg. hand carving. Some of
   the bureaus he used to use have gone bankrupt.
   One of the reasons he has stopped using such bureaus is not so much
   costs but delivery times.

3. The use of RP to make COMPLEX prototypes is basically solved.
   HIS BOTTLENECK IS, CURRENTLY, SIMPLE PARTS, ie. parts that can
   be lathed and bended parts.

4. The use of RP on a commercial basis to obtain parts in other materials
   through process chains or secondary tooling has produced good results.

5. The use of RP on a commercial basis to get several parts (10-20) in
   other materials still needs some refinement.

6. The next big step is to obtain FROM THE MARKET pre-series tooling, eg.
   a prototype tool that can be put on an injection molding machine and
   produce, say, 100-200 parts.

Not that 5 & 6 cannot be achieved with some geometries and specific techniques.
The problem is to pick up the phone and place an order regardless of the
geometry, from someone reliable source IN THE MARKET, and delivery times
comparable to the ones for prototypes.

Regards,
Andre'