Take your product development to another level
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- Empower your development teams to test various materials in real-world environments to see how they perform under thermal, chemical and mechanical stresses of everyday product use.
- Explore manufacturing processes using functional prototypes to determine part weight, assembly process, and overall manufacturability.
- Eliminate time-consuming and costly tooling to produce a real-world part within days instead of months.
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- Partner with the world's most experienced engineers to generate a part that meets your exacting specifications
- Access the widest selection of technologies and processes -- both additive and subtractive -- including 3D Systems' full arsenal of 3D printing processes and materials, plus traditional methods such as cast urethane, CNC machining, injection molding, metal- die casting, and sheet metal.
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Concept Modeling
Functional prototyping and concept modeling give design and engineering teams the ability to view and test products in real-world environments. A finished 3D printed concept model helps communicate ideas that transform digital CAD files on a screen into final products for user testing, design verification, or product design iterations. 3D printed concept models help bridge the gap between Quickparts rapid prototyping of simple designs and final production design. Concept models allow ideas to be communicated to broader teams for approval, design revisions, or marketing purposes.
Functional prototyping and concept modeling speed product development lifecycles, allowing iterative proof-of-concept testing and helping test design features and functionality early in the design process. Many times, functional prototypes require multiple manufacturing technologies in order to create the desired final product. With our full suite of services, we are able to combine 3D printing prototyping with conventional CNC machining and low-volume injection molding to meet the needs of virtually every design team.
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Functional Prototypes
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.
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Learn About our Functional Prototyping Processes
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Stereolithography
Highest accuracy and smoothest surface finish of all 3D printed parts. Print highly detailed parts ranging from just a few mm in size, all the way up to 5 ft (1.5 m), with exceptional resolution and accuracy and virtually no part shrink or warping.
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Selective Laser Sintering
Capable of producing highly durable and complex geometries in Nylon for real-world testing while other additive manufacturing methods may become brittle over time. Ideal for snap fits and living hinges.
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Direct Metal Printing
Production of high quality metal parts in a range of alloys. Allowing production of metal parts with challenging geometries, not possible using traditional subtractive or casting technologies.
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Cast Urethane
High quality parts production at low- to mid-volumes without the cost and time of hard tooling, using 3D printed masters and silicone molds that defy traditional production timelines.
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Sheet Metal
From one off prototypes to low-volume production, we offer a variety of manufacturing methods, materials, and finishing options for all your sheet metal needs.
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Die Casting
Continuous quality control shot after shot, taking your project from prototype to production in an accelerated timeframe.
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Low-Volume Injection Mold Tooling & Parts
Capabilities ranging from prototype through production quantities, multi-cavity tooling, tight tolerances, over-molding and secondary post-molding operations. Fast and dependable service with FREE Design for Manufacturing Analysis (DFM) report.
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Investment Casting Patterns
Rapid production of small to large 3D printed casting patterns in both SLA QuickCast and wax materials. With perfect surface finishes these patterns drop seamlessly into the investment casting workflow.