MPMN: May 1997
Stereolithography Brings Tested Products to Market in Record Time
Savings realized by fine-tuning the design before tool manufactureMany companies view modeling as an essential step in product development and production planning. Models are used to gain market feedback, test product characteristics, and ensure manufacturability--hopefully before a company invests in hard tooling. Unfortunately, some development teams still find the modeling process imprecise, expensive, and time-consuming; however, as one manufacturer recently discovered, the proper approach to prototyping and modeling can save a lot of time and money in the long run.
Ohmeda, a Colorado-based device manufacturer, was developing plans to introduce a new oximeter to complement its line of medical systems. An industrial design firm drew up sketches for the product's overall appearance, but turning those ideas into a useful device wasn't going to be easy. Time-to-market was a critical factor, and the development team had to get a design finalized, tested, and approved quickly. They needed a solid design and about 40 to 50 models that they could test for utility, manufacturability, and marketability.
Ohmeda approached Rapid Prototyping Corp. (RPC) in Colorado to see if it could help. RPC personnel demonstrated how they could streamline the development process by integrating design engineering with rapid prototyping and silicone-mold development. They began by transforming the product sketches into a 3-D CAD design. Within a few weeks, the design engineering was complete, and RPC was ready to move on to the prototyping stage. Using a sophisticated stereolithography system and holding tolerances to ±0.0005 in., it created nine prototype components that snapped neatly together to create a working model for design verification.
The model indicated where the design needed refinements. Thanks to the speed of stereolithography, RPC could present Ohmeda engineers with a new model to test just 24 hours after making a change in the CAD design. Once everyone was satisfied with the model, RPC developed a silicone mold. Fifty models of the oximeter were molded and painted to match the drawings for the final product. Some models were held for testing, while others were sent for evaluation by the manufacturing staff and marketing representatives around the world. The similarity of the models to the end product gave the marketing staff an accurate feel for the product features and enabled them to provide meaningful feedback to the engineering staff.
Based on their input, the development team made a number of changes that would have cost a great deal of time and money if they had been made after the investment in tools. For example, the team found that as designed, the oximeter would be too heavy to carry on a belt clip. Working with RPC, they eliminated the clip and expanded the housing to improve manufacturability.
By integrating the design, prototyping, and silicone-tool molding processes, RPC helped Ohmeda trim its overall time to market. Engineers were able to verify design tolerances, optimize product features, and secure detailed feedback on manufacturability and market interest before investing in final tooling. Moreover, the cost of RPC's services were more than offset by the savings realized by fine-tuning the design before tool manufacture and by the revenue generated through a timely market introduction.
