COST EVALUATION OF USING THE RAPID PROTOTYPING TECHNOLOGY    Guangming Zhang, Mark Richardson and Rena Surana Department of Mechanical Engineering & Institute for Systems Research University of Maryland, College Park, 20742 U.S.A. Tel: (301) 405-6617 Fax: (301) 314-9920
 

 
Abstract


As an emerging Technology, rapid prototyping has gained great attention from the Product design and manufacturing community. The solid free form fabrication Technology offers a unique opportunity to produce physical models of the designed Objects for evaluation during the design stage. The enhancement of manufacturability In the early stage of product development improves product quality, shortens the time To market, and signifies great potential to increase profitability. However, lack of Cost estimating and cost analysis of the rapid prototyping technology has brought Uncertainty to its industrial applications, leading to its slow acceptance. This paper Presents a systematic study of the intricacies of cost estimating and cost analysis of Rapid prototyping technology. The developed engineering approach decomposes The process of rapid prototyping into the following four stages:3D solid modeling, Data preparation for free-form fabrication, part building, and quality inspection. The Developed industrial engineering approach introduces cost determining variables to Associate them with the engineering processes defined en each of the four stages. A Case study utilizing the stereolithography process to build physical prototype for Constructing 3D tactile graphics, is presented to demonstrate the cost structure and to Justify the economical feasibility of suing rapid prototyping in the product Development cycle.