Product prototyping is a key component of the new product development process, but it&#;s much more than something that you just &#;should do.&#; It&#;s intended to move the manufacturing process forward, improve the product, and ensure that your concept meets its full potential. If you go through the prototyping process without gaining greater insight into your product and how best to manufacture it, it&#;s difficult to call that process &#;prototyping&#; at all. In that situation, it&#;s just a box to be checked off, at the expense of your valuable time and money, with no return on your investment.
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What are some of the hallmarks of a successful prototype &#; one that fits the bill of what a prototype really should be? Any list would be incomplete, because each entrepreneur or developer needs different things from a prototype &#; and moreover, each new product might benefit in different ways from a prototype. Though some typical qualities of a successful prototype are that it:
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Illustrates the real-world functionality of the product (and whether it needs to be fine-tuned).&#;
Shows how the product fits and interacts with other pieces or components (and whether design or dimensional adjustments are required).&#;
Provides a close facsimile of the end product&#;s actual aesthetics (and gives an indication of whether the look of the product is in keeping with your overall goals and needs).&#;
Proves that the product can be manufactured properly by your chosen production process (or shows that other processes can or should be considered).&#;
Raises questions that hadn&#;t been previously addressed in the product design (and potentially improves that design).&#;
Provides reasonable confidence that a product is ready to move forward to production (only after testing, examination and, potentially, additional prototype stages).&#;
Finally, a successful prototype is also one that fits into your budget &#; more on that later.How can you go about achieving these milestones of a successful prototype &#; or whatever your benchmarks may be? Here are some tips:
1) Clearly understand your own requirements. We keep driving home the same point, but it&#;s worth remembering: there&#;s no cookie-cutter prototype. Every product and every developer has different requirements that need to be met, questions that need to be answered, and problems that need to be solved. It&#;s important to understand how those specifics apply to you &#; specific being the key word. It&#;s difficult to gauge the success of a prototype if it doesn&#;t meet clearly defined and understood goals.
2) Define specific goals for each prototype or iteration. In many cases, it&#;s hard for a prototype to do many things at once. Whether due to cost, logistics or the practicalities of the product development and pitching process, several iterations are often recommended or required. In those cases, get even more granular as to what you&#;re looking for from a prototype iteration. If you&#;re interested in rapid prototyping, for instance, your goal for iteration might be to make sure that your product looks aesthetically great, both to consumers and investors. More functional prototypes might have the goal of proving your product mechanically sound or dimensionally viable.
3) Be aware of your prototype provider&#;s specialties. The best prototype providers add value by making the process as easy as possible, and by offering their valuable expertise and experience throughout the process. Prototype providers might only carry out rapid prototyping or 3D printing, for example, or they may not have those capabilities but be willing to accommodate a short injection molding run for you. Many shops have specialties in particular industries. Some providers with expertise in both prototyping and production can assist you with manufacturability issues, material questions and the realities of taking your product from the prototype phase to production. Be sure to research the providers you choose, or ask the right questions to get a feel for who they are and what they do best.
4) Know the limits of your particular prototype. Similar to the idea of outlining specific requirements and goals for your prototype, it&#;s important to also keep in mind what a specific iteration can&#;t or shouldn&#;t be able to do. Some types of rapid prototyping or materials are great for producing functional prototypes, while others are best suited for cosmetic testing.
5) Understand the properties of your prototype material. The material used in your prototype is a key factor to note. For instance, there may be differences in material hardness, flexibility, strength, resistance to temperature or other elements, and durability &#; among many other factors &#; when you&#;re testing and approving a prototype versus the material you choose for your final product.
6) Escape tunnel vision. It&#;s easy for a development team to become so detail-oriented and invested in the intricacies of a project that it misses big-picture problems that are probably apparent to an outsider with a fresh eye. Of course, product developers also naturally want their prototype to succeed. Be sure to test your prototype with those unfamiliar with the product &#; within or outside of your organization &#; to reap the benefits of those different ways of viewing and interacting with your product.
7) Keep an open mind. Remember what we noted earlier &#; you should learn something about your product from a prototype. Don&#;t be so quick to accept that a prototype does what it&#;s supposed to do &#; or is close enough. Take advantage of the opportunity to examine your product in a physical form and think about ways to improve it &#; either in design or production.
8) Stay aware of the bottom line. Always worth mentioning again: don&#;t blow the budget on prototyping. While yes, it is a critical part of the manufacturing process &#; which, when done correctly, yields great ROI &#; it&#;s important to stay on top of your prototyping costs as part of your overall budget. Fortunately, processes like rapid prototyping are typically much more cost-effective than other processes, and experienced prototype providers can assist you in getting the most value and efficiency from every iteration of your product.
Prototyping is a critical step for anyone developing and bringing a new product to market. for design houses, manufacturing companies, and product developers alike. Let&#;s explore the differences between prototyping equipment and those used for mass production.
You&#;ll also learn about 5 key uses of prototyping equipment, including:
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First, what is prototyping equipment versus production equipment?
The key distinction between prototyping and high-volume production is that production uses high-speed, highly automated machinery to create large volumes of products, whereas prototyping equipment is good for making, say, between 1 and 50, maybe up to 100 pieces, takes a longer time to program, is more manual, and is slower.
Large CNC machining centers may be used with high automation for production, however, smaller ones are used as NC machines for prototyping, where the engineer sets them up manually and rotates the control wheel to position it.
The quality of 3D printing has been coming on rapidly for prototyping but is not really used for mass production yet, with casting and injection molding favored. (00:00)
When you have the design engineers interacting with prototyping equipment and testing its limits and so on, it makes them more aware of the constraints in mass production and leads to a better product design overall.
When it comes to DFM (Design For Manufacturing) allowing the designers and the developers to use and create early-stage prototypes will allow them to understand the features that can be used in production to make life easier from the assembly point of view as well as disassembly in some cases.
Making iterations using new design changes at this stage using in-house equipment allows prototypes to be quickly made and tested and reduces the risks associated with going straight into fabricating tooling at great expense without validating the design. (08:26)
People use prototyping equipment to start making functional prototypes which might, at an early stage, be something as simple as a hacked-together proof-of-concept prototype. It doesn&#;t look good and probably doesn&#;t include all functions, but it allows us to validate some of the key functionality so we know we&#;re going in the right direction with the product. Until we create something tangible, product specifications are merely theoretical. Using such a prototype surfaces problems that can then be solved and refined in the feasibility study and subsequent design iterations. Note, that the prototyping and testing done at this stage may not be the full product, either, it may be just one one or more modules of the product, such as a hinged area with an intricate design that we need to make sure works properly. (13:26)
Next, you may start to work on what people call look-like prototypes which show the product&#;s aesthetics. But it&#;s more than just looks, this kind of prototype is also about what kind of materials are used, how the user feels when seeing and touching the product, and so on. There will also be a focus on dimensions and tolerances, as we make sure that the product fits together properly (which is about both its inside and outside).
Even look-like prototype products may not be &#;perfect&#; because of the technologies involved. For example, 3D printed parts probably need to be finished off by hand and painted to reach the color and finish, but they may still not be as sharp and crisp as injection molded production versions; therefore, expectations need to be tempered. (18:29)
Product durability and compliance are important for both businesses and users, as products that do not reach expectations of either may be unusable, unsafe, or both, and could be banned from sale, or, worse, end up causing harm to people. Prototypes can be useful to check that a product will be reliable and compliant with regulations, but at this stage they should be closer to a production model, using the same processes and materials, as otherwise, the tests will not validate the real products in users&#; hands. A 3D-printed prototype using a totally different plastic would be unlikely to pass testing and get certified, and even if it did it would apply to production models.
For instance, with injection-molded products it may still be possible to use production materials and create real almost production-level enclosures (maybe some textures and finishes may be little different to injection molded) without using final production mold tooling if we use freeform injection molding. These dissolvable molds will last for one to a few shots and can use production-intent materials (plastics, silicone, or other materials), unlike 3D printing for example, and then they just dissolve away. As long as you are happy with tolerances etc, there&#;s no reason why you could stress test these prototypes for reliability and compliance as they would more-or-less the same as production aside from the tooling used. (32:02)
Using prototyping equipment to make a smaller bridge production run/s of, say, 50 to 500 products or so will keep the wolf from the door if you have large customers or crowdfunding backers clamoring for products as your launch date approaches. It is key to note that product launches can often run over and be a little delayed, so if this is the case, this scenario is more likely. However, what you don&#;t want to do is rush the end of the NPI process as mistakes can still be made that could affect product quality and reliability once it is in production. So, typically after the product design has been locked, you may use prototyping equipment to produce this small quantity at a higher price per unit which leaves you with perhaps little margin, but does build trust with your suppliers. Many products use mainly off-the-shelf parts, so it&#;s feasible that you can produce a relatively small number of custom parts in this way to build the products even if it is more manual and takes longer. As you move into mass-production, of course, this becomes unfeasible and you would use more automation and, perhaps, different equipment or processes to handle the large volumes of products to be made. (43:45)
Prototyping equipment can also be used late on in as we reach production to produce fixtures and jigs and things like that that need to be put in place on the assembly line and so on. For example, a 3D printer can create a simple jig that holds a part in place for the operator to work on or presents it to them in a certain way.
It may also be used to support logistics, producing dunnage to pack products with like pre-cut foam or blister packs, etc.
3D printing is especially helpful here due to the volume of different jigs and fixtures being used on an assembly line, and compared with CNC-machining them, it is a less costly and time-consuming option, as well. (44:43)
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