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Top 7 Reasons for Rapid CNC Prototyping In-house

Maximizing Efficiency and Quality

Introduction

No matter the industry investing in rapid prototyping in-house provides a competitive advantage. Rapid prototyping is a high-end tool utilized for pre-operative planning, concept modeling, diagnostics, and identifying flaws in early design stages. It has become a crucial component of any product life-cycle during the early production or manufacturing phases. Establishing an in-house prototyping lab enables close monitoring and control of each stage of the product life-cycle, guaranteeing superior results from the process. Below are seven reasons why any company that develops products should invest in in-house prototyping.

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Increase Speed to Market

Bringing rapid prototyping in-house puts you in control of the speed of your design process and delivery. Traditional outsourcing can take a week or more for a prototype to arrive due to transit time. In addition, internal development can add to the lag. As a result of the time and cost implications, companies are often hesitant to request a prototype until they have almost finalized their design. Conversely, in-house prototyping is less constrained by time and cost, as a physical model can be machined on-site on the same day, making changes on the go, significantly accelerating the overall development timeline.

Improve Innovation

When confronted with the expenses and delays associated with outsourcing, the most likely design is chosen to be made rather than creating various prototypes for a product. However, by utilizing in-house rapid prototyping, businesses can generate numerous prototypes with diverse features and iterations. These prototype iterations can be achieved in a short time by running unmanned production on a 5-Axis Machining Center with an Automated Pallet System. This enables them to machine dozens of options in the time it would take to receive a single outsourced prototype from a vendor. This approach fosters innovation and ensures that the final product design is the most suitable for the project.

See how our customer KAD Models Leverages Automation For Short-Run Prototype Models >

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Unlock Your Creativity

In-house prototyping reduces the time and cost associated with outsourced prototypes, providing more design freedom and the opportunity to explore possibilities earlier in the process. This creative freedom supports better outcomes by eliminating rushed work and inspiring exploration that leads to new solutions. "We would literally bring a napkin sketch to the engineer running the CNC to machine new parts, this saved us valuable programming time," stated Derek G. applications engineer at Ideo, in Silicon Valley.

Improve Your Security

Establishing an in-house prototyping lab is the best line of defense against potential piracy. By retaining control over the development process and intellectual property, from start to finish, you can mitigate the potential risks of theft. In today's age of data breaches and security leaks, avoiding third-party vendors who may not prioritize security is critical.

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Control the Cost

In-house prototyping will not only eliminate 3rd party vendor profit margin and shipping cost but also the unexpected costs associated with incorrect tooling, design changes, and expensive molds and dies that require multiple iterations. “Having parts in hand, our manufacturing team was able to identify more ways to reduce costs,” stated one R&D model shop supervisor. For example, when fitting a flange into a receptacle, making a mold to produce a prototype can reveal that the flange is slightly too large to fit. Remaking the mold to fix the issue is often too expensive, and as a result, not done. Rapid prototyping circumvents this problem by allowing for numerous revisions within each iteration, eliminating the need to reproduce the costly mold. Investing in a prototyping CNC machining center will protect your bottom line in the long run, cutting costs by tens of thousands of dollars per product, while decreasing the lead time drastically.

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Beat the Competition

Establishing in-house prototyping processes provides a competitive edge for two reasons: faster iteration and quicker problem-solving. By bringing a CNC machining center in-house, companies can arrive at a solution sooner and make changes on-the-go, beating the competition. This is particularly relevant today, given the growing need for in-house prototyping for research and product development in response to changing customer and market demands.

Ready to learn more about the benefits of rapid prototyping and how it can give your business a competitive edge?

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