Plastics
Rapid prototyping is now capable of producing parts and products in the same materials used in production. This is important as it allows for accurate testing and analysis.
Because of this, a diverse range of plastics are available for use in a wide variety of prototyping techniques including FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling), Objet/Polyjet printing, SLS and CNC prototyping techniques. Plastics can also be used to manufacture short run injection moulds, blow moulds, production tools, as well as jigs and fixtures.
RapidPro offers the following thermoplastic materials/processes:
FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) – ABS, Polycarbonate, Polyphenyalsolphone
Objet/Polyjet printing - Vero, Tango and FullCure
Selective Laser Sintering – Nylon/Glass Filled Nylon
CNC- ABS, PC, Acrylic , POM, Nylon and PP
To view a material comparison chart click here.
RapidPro also offers vacuum casting as a fast, low cost solution for producing small quantities of functional parts. With a large variety of urethane/elastomers materials available, we are able to mimic production injection moulded parts ranging from soft rubbers (low shore A) to hard plastics (high shore D).
At RapidPro we believe in evaluating each project to review the mechanical properties (and chemical resistance) of the plastic materials available and what is required of the prototype. We focus on tensile, shear and Impact strength properties as the most important indicator of the materials behavior under loading. So if you know the production intent material, we can tune a fast cast material to suit.
