Rapid Prototyping is defined as the automatic construction of physical objects using additive production tooling technology. It is the process which is viewed by the vendor. On the other hand, the buyer usually just wants their product more quickly, not too much care how it's made.

With that in mind, it's important to recognize when to rely on technology to save time and money. And it's just as important to recognize when that technology will actually take more time, and cost more money.

For example, we were approached by a customer that needed a special cover. He told us what it would be covering, and gave us a sketch of what he needed. The sketch had 4 dimensions on it. These were the critical dimensions, so the others were left undetermined. The cover would need to be vacuum formed.

We had two options with the mold. We could create a digital 3d model from the sketch, program it into a CNC machine and have it cut, or create the mold by hand.

Within 1 day, we went from a sketch, to a finished part.

What we found interesting about this job is that we relied on skilled labor rather than technology. We not only created the finished part cheaper than using technology (CAD modeling & CNC), but we did it faster as well. Our biggest asset is that we did everything in-house.