A mere 17 years ago this month, stereolithography and plastic engine mockup debuted at the Auto facto show in Detroit.

plastic engine mockup article

 This ushered in rapid prototyping (RP), the process of creating physical models out of plastic directly from computer-aided design (CAD) geometry files. Gone would be the clay, wooden, and metal models that took lots of time and more money to produce. Back then, trade show attendees all stood in awe as cute, little gears and propellers and chess pieces and dinosaurs and so many more things essentially grew in the RP machines--right before our eyes. Better than pens, rulers, and other trinkets handed out at trade shows, attendees coveted these semitransparent or opaque prototypes out of plastic resin. A lot has changed since then. The number of RP vendors has expanded and then consolidated.

The number of RP materials has grown to satisfy all sorts of applications. More impressive, RP is no longer just for small parts, and RP parts are even being used in final assemblies. (Although those clay, wood and metal models have yet to disappear.) Rapid prototyping: bigger & stronger; Once it was all about small, fragile parts. But now, models made with rapid prototyping equipment are not only sizable, but durable revolution controller mockup