As an electronics equipment manufacturer, our Emona Tims R & D team, www.emona.-tims.com, has struggled with the problems associated with prototyping high strength functional enclosures and parts, as well as sourcing low volume high quality end use parts.
Functional prototypes are often incredibly expensive to manufacture and suffer from long lead times. Cosmetic prototypes, while useful for verifying fit and look, lack the strength to properly evaluate functionality of a design in application.
Functional prototypes should withstand the same rigors that the final part would, including loading and exposure to chemicals. Machining low volume prototypes out of materials that are both strong and chemically resistant takes time and money, stretching development cycles and unnecessarily straining R&D budgets. Strong parts prototyping is just not available from generic 3D printers utilising thermoplastics such as ABS or PLA.
Emona's R & D team have overcome these roadblocks and I wanted to share our experience with you.
We have found that Markforged carbon fibre composite 3D printers give you the ability to quickly iterate, print, test, and modify high strength functional prototypes within a matter of days — replacing a process that typically requires weeks to months for every iteration.
Markforged printed functional prototypes are strong and resistant to corrosive environments. Continuous fiber reinforcement gives these printed parts near aluminum strength—as a result, they can effectively mimic parts that will eventually be made out of both plastic and metal. 3D printing prototypes keeps costs down and reduces design cycle time so much that you can iterate more while still taking your products to market faster.
Apart from high strength, Markforged printed parts also have an ultra-smooth surface finish that is equivalent to injection molded plastics, allowing you to print high quality end use parts as well. Effective functional prototyping will allow you to bring products to market faster, beat the competition and drive increased revenue for your organisation.
We'd love to print your sample parts to demonstrate how the high strength and ultra-smooth surface finish offered by Markforged will change the way you see functional prototyping and small volume end use part printing. Click here for more details on printing a sample part: Yes, Print Me a Sample Part!