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Rapid Prototyping Services

Eliminate risk, execute complex designs and realize your product vision quickly.

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What Is Rapid Prototyping?

Rapid prototyping involves specialized manufacturing techniques for making high-quality physical models of a 3D design idea. Prototypes are useful for design improvement, as stepping stones to full production or for engineering testing. They are meant to be quick and economical, without the need for the investment in hard tooling. Many of our clients need to produce a physical part quickly to validate a design or to capture a fleeting sales opportunity.

Advantages Of Making A Prototype

How can partnering with WB Engineering  to quickly manufacture a prototype help you and your business? Here are just some of the ways:

  • Show your customers and investors a physical model of your product

  • Demonstrate the appearance, dimensions, and features of your product

  • Test the market with your product before production

  • Save time and money by identifying and reducing design flaws

  • Improve and streamline the production process

  • Create multiple versions with different colors, surface textures, and finishing processes

What type of prototype do you need?:

Star Prototype is the stereolithography process in which a laser transforms a liquid photopolymer into prototype layers of solid plastic, and each layer is slightly different. Then a solid 3D model is produced by joining these layers. We pride ourselves on quality customer service, delivering on-time and offering professional customer support in multiple languages. SLS prototyping is similar to SLA, but SLS uses a much higher power laser to bond plastic powder together to form a 3D prototype. Our SLA manufactured prototypes find their best applications in the following areas of work:

  • • Mainly for review of design concept

  • • As display samples for promotion

  • • After surface treatment, SLA products are extremely attractive

It is done by CNC machines which require less maintenance and can work 24 hours a day. Thus it is a cost effective process too. In CNC machines the material required has to be square cut on all sides in regular shape. The approved materials for CNC prototyping are generally Foam, MDF, Wood Shoppe, Solid Wood, Plywood, Acrylic, and Aluminum. The advantage of CNC Prototyping is that it delivers accuracy and superior quality in your work. Through this effective prototyping process you can get metals parts that are exactly the grade of metal you need. We recommend the CNC process because it is suitable for  painting, anodizing, electroplating, coating etc.

Although CNC takes a longer lead time from 4 to7 days, we received positive feedback from our customers. It is also the most popular method to be adopted. With our mature fixture technology developed, CNC is a powerful and attractive technology to make a small batch.

It is specifically created to produce small sets of plastic components of the highest possible quality. Vacuum casting is  used for the production of small series of functional plastic prototypes. The method uses cast silicone molds. To ensure proper filling of the mold, a wall thickness of at least 0.5mm is necessary. This cost effective technology is better for Pre-launch testing, low volume testing, and visual models.

We recommend vacuum casting services for a wide range of colors/textures in parts produced in a broad range of manufacturing materials available. Large castings up to 1900 x 900 x 750 mm can be done with no investment cost required comparing with hard tooling. It is much more cost effective to get hundreds of pieces compared to the CNC and SLS/SLA methods.

Sheet metal fabrication is a set of manufacturing processes used to turn sheet metal stock into functional parts. The sheet metal is usually between 0.006 and 0.25 inches (0.015 and 0.635 centimeters) thick. There are several processes that fall under the umbrella of sheet metal fabrication. These include cutting, bending, and punching, and can be used either in tandem or individually.

Sheet metal fabrication can be used to create either functional prototypes or end-use parts, but end-use sheet metal parts generally require a finishing process before they are ready for the market.

The rapid tooling process involves the creation of a mold using aluminum or soft steel, a stocked mold base, and hand-load inserts. Rapid tooling is ideal for small batch orders meant for use in marketing samples, product evaluations, and process design.

Traditional tooling is often prohibitively expensive for small projects. Our custom rapid tooling service offers a cost-effective, low-volume alternative in situations where large volumes of the part won’t be needed in the future. The rapid production tooling process is commonly used in industrial settings for prototyping or for diagnosing design issues.

What does rapid prototyping mean?

Our in-house rapid prototype shop is equipped with 3D-Printing, SLA, and CNC machines, allowing for fast turn around of prototype parts. Rapid prototyping is a process of speedy creation of a full-scale model of a product.

The technology can be used in testing the efficiency of the product, creating the architecture of a new network and in reviewing a software program by the users before it gets in the market.  Our rapid prototyping services include quality production under strict scheduling for on-time delivery and professional customer support in multiple languages.

WB Engineering often prototypes parts and components throughout the product development process to assess their fit, form, and function. The prototype technique we use is dependent on the quality, time and functional requirements for the part.

Take your product development to another level

3D printed functional prototypes enable real-world product development and testing to take place before costly investments in production tooling. By creating 3D printed functional prototypes, teams can test various thermoplastic materials in real-world environments to see how high-performance prototypes perform under thermal, chemical, and mechanical stresses of everyday product use.

These realistic prototypes can take on the appearance of your final finished product, including color and material selection. Manufacturing processes can be explored using functional prototypes to determine part weight, assembly process, and overall manufacturability.

This is what differentiates WB Engineering from other product design companies. While these companies use the traditional product design process, which is DESIGN-BUILD-TEST-FIX (Many times over), WB Engineering instead uses Digital Prototyping which changes the traditional product design cycle to DESIGN-ANALYZE-TEST-BUILD

Real-World Testing

Studies show that by using Digital Prototyping to catch design problems upfront, manufacturers experience fewer change orders downstream. If all possible, WB Engineering leaves little to chance. With products as simplistic as a cell phone case to medical devices, the same due diligence is taken. We can analyze your part digitally to ensure the product will perform under stress, find failure points, optimize for manufacturability to reduce cost, improve product performance, etc. This level of detail gives your project a much higher level of success because there will be less errors, more efficiency and shorter lead times when you manufacture your product, saving a significant amount of money and time.

Prove and perfect your designs in rigorous testing scenarios with tough 3D printed prototypes. With a range of technologies and engineering-grade materials to choose from, you can see how your product performs even before market production.

Correct errors and improve designs early in the development process by taking advantage of our fast prototyping services. High-performance prototypes built with FDM, LS or DMLS can withstand thermal, chemical and mechanical stress, adding a new level of performative data for your product.

Our Prototyping Services

SLA

SLS

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SHEET METAL

VACUUM CASTING

Rapid Prototyping Services

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