THE PROOF IS IN THE PROTOTYPE For over 15 years, Precision 3D Printing (P3P) has built a reputation of being the company that you can turn to when you want to get your products to market faster. Recognising the advantages to rapid prototyping, P3P has been early 3D printing technology adopters and that has allowed it to stay ahead of the competition and provide the most up-to-date techniques available to product designers and manufacturing engineers. But it’s not just the technology that helps to set this company apart, a facet that has culminated in many internationally acclaimed projects such as its relationship with Rex Bionics, a Kiwi company providing robot rehabilitation exoskeletons. “We prototyped for them from day one, and even some of the final end use components are all made through our rapid moulding processes,” says business manager, Alicia Rayer. The team, too, is cutting edge. “Our production team are all engineering experienced and qualified. They’re experts in 3D printing and dedicated to helping you find the optimum solution for your application,” says Alicia. She is incredibly proud of the company’s skillsets and says it is a major advantage P3P has over the competition. “Rapid tooling is something we at P3P have been involved with for some time, but our experience and knowledge in rapid moulding is also a very good reason from companies to do business with us,” says Alicia. 24 October 2017 “Rapid moulding is a process that we use in the intermediate steps when one-off prototyping instead of full-on injection moulding,” says Zane Reid, an expert in everything technical at P3P, producing a prototype in a wide variety from flexible to rigid polyurethane. “The versatility in hardness allows for a feel and sometimes necessary flexibility of a finished product. That can save costs and time.” Zane says he is very excited at where rapid moulding is headed. “Rapid moulding is ideal for projects that require high accuracy and lower volumes – such as prototyping. It’s not only tough and durable, but also enable complex parts and a fast turnaround of just a couple of weeks,” he says. He says rapid moulding is a cost-effective alternative to injection moulding, 3D printing, or machining, suitable for machinery replacement parts, electronic and automotive parts. “Sometimes you don’t want to spend a massive amount of money to get a tool done, you want to check and test your market and rapid moulding allows for it with the short run.” Zane says is the ideal solution for prototypes or short production runs, perfect for product samples or functional testing where traditional moulding processes would cost too much and 3D printing multiple copies would take too long. Alicia says there are other options internationally, but with P3P the protection of IPs is of top priority and customers can rest assured that their prototype isn’t being made in the front of house BENEFITS OF RAPID MOULDING: Fast turnaround: 1-2 weeks Flexible quantities: 1-500 parts Multi-cavity moulds High accuracy on complex parts Tough, durable Size up to 1,000mm x 300mm x 400mm Colour options available Range of hardness options Material: polyurethane UV resistance option Low stress mouldings while being produced and shipped out the back. With P3P, customers just need an idea, a sample or a CAD file, and the team can get the project started. Processes include SLA (sterolithography), rapid tooling, rapid moulding, FDM (fused deposit modelling), polyurethane casting, silicone casting, DMP (direct metal printing), SLS (laser sintering) and multijet printing.
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