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by Robert Malone, Contributing Editor   | Abstract: | Forget outsourcing to China: Rapid prototyping is coming of age as CAD technology is being combined with online services processing. |
If for a moment people would stop dreaming about, waiting for, or playing with iPhones, they might put their minds to work on faster and newer manufacturing methods. One alternative to handing the work to the Chinese is to use contemporary technology in the United States to get jobs done pronto. As we have seen, some Chinese outsourcing has backfired. Witness lead-painted toy trucks, unsavory chemical additives in toothpaste, and food processing difficulties. Alternative processes use a combination of technologies that came into being in the 1980s and 1990s and are only now seeing success. These are additive fabrication processes, such as stereolithography (SL), selective laser sintering (SLS), and fused deposition modeling (FDM), as well as computer-aided design (CAD) and online business processing. SLS, for example, uses a laser to sinter — that is, heat and fuse, but not melt — powder-based materials. The system comprises a laser, part chamber, and control system. The part chamber, with a build platform, a powder cartridge for the material, and a leveling roller, is where the action takes place. [Click to continue] |