Prototyping Services
- CNC Machining
CNC machining has become a great all-around prototyping process. In recent years the cost of CNC parts has dropped substantially and it is now cost competitive with additive modelling processes while having great structural integrity combined with accuracy and a full range of materials and finishes.- Laser Cutting
Laser cutting is a process that takes a 2d profile and cuts any number of parts out of a wide variety of potential materials. While generally out of sheet material, structural and piping materials can also be cut. Since this process uses a CNC controlled laser it can easily cut various shapes and sizes of part without requiring the large up-front investment of traditional sheet cutting and punching processes.- Metal Casting
Sandcasting is an old but still useful way to get cost-effective parts in metals including Steel, Brass and Aluminum. A pattern or model is used to create a negative form in sand into which metal can be poured to get the desired part. Parts can then be post-machined as well as finished by painting or powdercoating.- Plastic and Rubber Casting
Plastic and Elastomer casting are generally used when you need multiple copies of realistic performance prototypes. The tooling is made out of cast rigid or flexible polymer moulds instead of Steel resulting in a lower up-front tooling cost than injection moulding. They are most suited for low quantity prototyping and production runs due to having a higher per-unit part cost.- Polyjet 3D Printing
Polyjet printing offers accurate and fine detail parts with similar performance and detail to more expensive High-resolution SLA parts. Polyjet works by printing a resin as well as a gel support material at the same time and curing both of them with UV lamps. Polyjet parts can be rigid or elastomers and even can give you both in the same part for simulating overmoulds.- Rapid Injection Moulding
Rapid Injection moulding is a mass production process used for producing hundreds to thousands of identical, low-cost parts. The key to the effectiveness of Rapid injection moulding is optimizing the part design to achieve simple, cost-effective tooling.- Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
SLS builds parts by melting layers of powdered substrates, both plastics and metals, together with a Laser. The result is functional, durable parts in the desired material. The advantage of SLS is the ability to create complex forms that would otherwise be difficult, time consuming or costly to machine.- Stereolithography (SLA)
SLA is a process where a laser traces over a vat of photo-sensitive polymer to form a part. There are many varieties of resin, resolutions, and build sizes making SLA a flexible process to target the right balance of cost, strength and resolution for your specific prototype needs.Next generation SLA resins have vastly better properties for strength, flexibility and resistance to hygroscopic distortion.
- Vacuum Forming
In Vacforming, sheet material is heated, draped over a form and a vacuum is applied to make the heated material conform to the pattern. The parts are then trimmed to the desired shape. Vacuum-formed parts can be used both in prototypes or production runs.There are a number of thermoplastic sheet materials to choose from including ABS, HIPS, Vivac, Acrylic and many others.
- Z-Corp Printing
Z-Corp is a powder-binder technology. First, the 3D Printer spreads a layer of powder. Second, an ink-jet print head prints the cross-section of the part. Next, the build chamber drops down making room for a new layer, and the process is repeated. Once printed, the surrounding loose powder is then dusted from the part. The finished part is then impregnated with a hardening material (wax, hardener or resin) to increase its strength and impart different physical properties.
Supporting Services
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3D Scanning
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