Is it possible to use RP systems to product production parts rela tively cost-effectively???

Hello,
        Over the past few months our organization have been looking into
purchasing RP equipment for the use of product development. After some
research we have found that it would not be cost effective for us to
purchase a RP systems for prototyping alone. Our next step is to determine
if we can also use the system to produce production part. This would mean
ideally running the system up to 20 hours a day producing mostly standard
production part and then occasionally setting up the system to create
prototype. Therefore the majority of the work will be production, and the
key factor will be the cost of the parts created.

Our production parts are produced in both cast iron and bronze and range in
size from medium to large. The RP materials would have to be the same or
very close to those material properties. I believe that there are really
only two types of system options would be Direct metal or some type of sand
casting process, however I'm open to any other suggestions on other possible
processes.

 So this brings us to the final question, can these (or any RP process) be
turned into cost effective production method? Will a large number of parts
and RP systems running time substantially reduce cost (larger material
purchases, long machine run times, ect..)? Should we consider further
investigation into this? Your comments are greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks

Mike
Received on Tue Jan 06 19:23:51 2004