Where is 3D printing applicable? Is it Rapid Prototyping?
Posted by Robert Kiser on Sat, Mar 14, 2009 @ 04:57 PM
Lets be clear; 3D Printing is Rapid Prototyping, but not all Rapid Prototyping systems are 3D Printers. A printer type rapid prototype system "jets" liquid material out of spray nozzles located in a block, laying down a 2-Dimensional bitmap, one on top of another at specified mechanical heights, or jets liquid out of the block into a material like a powder that absorbs the liquid and solidfies the powder into a hard bitmap image. I have been involved with Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing since 1993 and the term applied to the industry was "Rapid Prototyping". Objet Geometries was the first company to coin a rapid prototype system a "3D Printer" and called their rapid prototype system technology "3D Printing Technology". It was the first high resolution rapid prototype system to enter the arena with surface quality of parts containing RMS values in the Die casting range with the capability in Full Glossy mode of RMS values in the lower Die casting range. See here:
How can a 3D Printer create such smooth surface resolutions? Simple, a 3D Printer grows layer after layer in very small slices of 6 ten thousands of an inch .0006" and has the ability to deposit material with excellent precision.
