Prototyping

Prototyping

Prototype is usually required for products newly developed or designed. Prototype is the first step to verify the feasibility of products. It is the most direct and effective way to find out the defects, deficiencies and drawbacks of designed products, so as to carry out targeted improvement on defects until deficiencies cannot be found from individual prototype samples.  At this point, until all problems solved from beginning, then can customer start to build the injection molds and proceed mass production. this means save of manpower and material…..

So prototype is also quite important before to build t he mold, while at TKB, Prototyping is just part of our added service, TKB is charging pure cost on it, as we are just having some profit in house making process like mold manufacturing and injection molding. So you can rest assured prices from TKB are always reasonable.

Prototyping Methods

CNC machining prototyping, and 3D printing prototyping

Difference between CNC  prototyping and 3D printing prototyping:  

1. material comparison:  

3D printing prototype: there is specific requirements for material, high rate of utilization, no waste,;  

CNC prototype: a variety of materials can be used, but there is high percentage of waste, lower rate of utilization.

2.  Processing comparison:  

3D printing prototype： 3D printing can make round surface shaped product, or special shaped structure at once.

CNC prototype：CNC prototyping need repeat and complex machining in order to finish the prototyping for special shaped structure. 

3. Cost comparison:  

For the point of view “3D printing prototyping is much cheaper than  CNC prototyping ” , it is not correct, the price of the two ways of processing is relative.  CNC process needs programming and repeat machining for complex prototype, usually a CNC equipment needs to be equipped with 3-4 personnel, labor costs are large.  Therefore, the cost of CNC mainly depends on the complexity of parts and material consumption and labor cost. The more complex the parts are, the more work needs to be split and programmed. The more complex the splicing process of post-processing is, the more man-hours are required and the higher the cost is.  For simple structure, large volume of prototype, using CNC processing is more cost-effective.  However, 3D printing is mainly charged according to the weight. For small products with complex structure and process, the price of 3D printing processing may be more advantageous.  

The samples of 3D printing hand board and CNC hand board generally need a small amount of trial production to find out the lack of batch to improve, the planning of the finished product generally can not be very perfect, or even can not be used, direct production once there are shortcomings will all be scrapped, greatly wasted manpower and material resources and time.  3D printing hand board and CNC processing hand board are mainly used in the production of home appliances, digital products, children’s toys, car parts and other industrial production category.  

Plastic Material for Prototyping

Since products produced of each industry are different, so the plastic material to make the prototype is different. There are four commonly used plastic materials for prototyping:  

1, ABS is generally widely used to make product shell prototype, the connection is relatively strong. so normally used to make metal plating products, such as water plating, vacuum evaporation plating,  this material has round bar, plate shape, etc..  

2, PMMA belongs to acrylic, also belongs to plexiform glass, it has good transparency, is the best material choice for transparent products, it can not only for dyeing, electroplating, spraying, screen printing,  but also for products with strong solubility, but its weakness is very fragile.  It’s suitable for product with the hook mechanism.  

3, PP is a semi translucent material, its advantages are strong impact resistance, good flexibility, can be applied to products with very high impact resistance requirements, such as auto parts, packaging for folding type prototype.  

4, PC has good strength, high flexibility, good transparency, in addition, PC with glass fiber added can improve the rigidity and heat resistance of the pc plate, is more suitable for Lens, prototype/product need to maintain its high rigidity and heat resistance under high temperature environment. 

TKB types of plastic prototyping application

Since plastic parts are widely used in almost every key industry. and its new project development is keep moving. Prototyping is also used for all related industries of automotive, medical, electronics, industrial, home appliances, consumer products.

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