Rapid Prototype Machine

Assalamualaikum and Hello everyone!
Hello Puan Manami!

So last time we fiished on our 3D assembling. We finally went to the lab that provide Rapid Protoype (RP) machine to continue our Reverse Engineering process which is producing the prototype using machine. We finally able to see, touch and experiance the machine. It was definitely a great experiance and knowledge.

"Rapid Prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part of assembly using 3D computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D or "additive layer manufacturing" technology" (Wikipedia, 2016).

RP Machine

This is the RP machine at our department. It is pretty huge and look so heavy. It is connected to a computer that read our 3D drawing. This is where the printing process happen. This machine using Polyjet and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) for the materials. These materials can be pretty costy but the properties are good and exellence espeacially for the people that looking for plastic and durable kind of properties. 

(Industrial Design Department, Faculty of Design and Architecture, University Putra Malaysia)

This is the inside of RP machine and how the printing the product.

Water Work Machine

This is the water work machine. After the product have been printed by the RP machine. This machine will degrade all the base structure leaving the only 3D part model.

Software that read 3D drawing.

This is the software that read our STL file 3D drawing. It will determine all parts that need to be printed and calculate the amount of materials needed with the time taken to finish the printing process. 

We do face a few obstacles such as the limited material provided cost us to reduce the scale of our drawing. In the beginning we did feel a little bit disappointed as we really want our 3D model to be printed in 1:1 scale. Because the original product that we chose was already small in size and compact. If we wanted to print it, it took more than 10 hours to finish and used a lot of materials. 

So we reduced the size of of our 3D model to 50% less. The process to scale down the model itself was not that easy. It became hard because all the parts were from different individuals and it had a lot of problem to read and follow the instruction but somehow our heroic lecturer that we love so much really help us in order to make it successful. Thank you so much Puan Manami. In the end this process also helped us to learn more about the abilty of 3D software can offer which was great espeacially the software that we were using SOLIDWORKS. It finally became 2:1 scale of model and only took less than 1 hour to finish. Alhamdulillah.

Hope everything will turn out great and we cannot wait to see the finished prototype printed.

We offer our gratitude and big thanks to our beloved lecturer Puan Manami for the patient and kindness showed in order to teach us and also the lab assistant Puan Fadilah that helped us a lot during the process. Thank you very much.

See you next time.

Have a great day.