Rapid Manufacturing – Primed for Production?

To me, it's obvious that there need to be testing standards (otherwise, what's the point of the test?). But given that the parts thus created are materially sound, they should be acceptable for any purpose. Why not? Is a turret lathe any better?

These rapid prototyping methods still have limitations. The parts made by any of the rapid prototyping machines do not have the structural strength or density of molded parts or parts machined from solid materials. If for example you design an ABS housing for an electronics part that must have FCC approval or you must do drop or impact testing, then a rapid prototype part will not do. Last I heard you could not produce a Delrin part by any of the rapid prototype methods. Rapid prototyping does however have the ability to greatly speed up the path to production by providing hands on parts for observation of fit and function of new designs. It can also be used to produce patterns which can be used to produce tooling such as mold inserts or casting patterns sometimes cutting months off of the design to finished product time. The rapid prototyping industry is advancing daily. It is probably too soon to create a set of standards for this technology and may not be necessary since standards already exist for materials that can be applied universally.

Depends on what you are making.

We have 25 Viper SI2 machines and make over 3000 unique finished parts a day.

Most companies use them for prototyping only.

On the medical side the materials have to be biocompatible to use. There are very few class 6 materials available.

The dental industry is also starting to quick adopt this technology for many different thinks

Rapid manufacturing techniques are already being used to produce one off products such as biomedical implants where you need good precision and where you do not need high volumes.

Ofcourse, I think new standards are needed as with any other new technique.