Low-Cost, High-Tech Desktop Publishing
By Mike Drummond
A long time ago, in a country not too far far away, Andrew Ainsworth and his Shepperton Design Studios made stormtrooper armor for the original Star Wars films.
Filmmaker George Lucas and crew initially were going to make the entire stormtrooper costumes of fiberglass. However, that proved impractical. Fiberglass was too heavy and too expensive.
Lucas found Ainsworth’s Shepperton Design Studies in England up to the task in 1976. Rather than fiberglass, the menacing white uniforms were made of a custom resin/metal composite and shaped in a large vacuum forming machine.
Let’s leave aside the Dark Side of this episode – Lucasfilm sued Ainsworth in 2006 for copyright infringement, alleging Shepperton Design Studios produced and sold unauthorized stormtrooper helmets and uniforms. Lucas initially won a $20 million judgment in the United States.
Ainsworth countersued.
A UK court sided with Lucasfilm, but ruled its copyright expired, leaving Ainsworth free to sell stormtrooper garb in the UK.
Hmmm. Distracting this is.
What was that about vacuum forming?
Vacuum forming is a way to make parts and prototypes by heating a sheet of plastic and vacuum suctioning it over a mold or tool. Vacuum forming has been around for more than 50 years. The process hasn’t changed, but the machines have.
In fact, vacuum forming devices and their cousins, CNC milling machines, 3D printers and the computer-aided design or CAD software that informs these and other modern prototyping and short-run machines are smaller, faster and far more sophisticated than they were just a decade ago.
Meanwhile, the prices for these machines have plummeted. Much like what the personal computer did for desktop publishing, new breeds of prototyping machines have set the stage for a desktop manufacturing revolution.
Never before has it been this easy and inexpensive to create and produce your own parts and professional-grade prototypes. Who needs pricey tooling and overseas manufacturing when you can do it in your garage?
Moreover, the ability to make or obtain prototypes and parts quickly to test for component fit and function can help get your product to market faster than your competition.
Need CAD software? Alibre Design Personal Edition is $199. So-called wire mesh programs such as Google SketchUp and Blender are free. Free!
Then there’s Trimensional, a 3D scanning app for the iPhone 4, iPad and iTouch – it costs 99 cents.
CNC or computer-numerical control machines take CAD data and carve parts out of solid pieces of plastic, wood and some types of metals. You can pick up an entry-level machine, such as the Taig Tools CNC Mill, for about $2,000.
3D printers make parts and objects by adding material – usually heated plastic – a little at a time. A build-your-own 3D printer from Makerbot costs $1,299.
Formech, with U.S.-based operations in Chicago, sells entry-level vacuum-forming machines for about $2,500. Some of its higher-end manual models retail closer to $35,000.
“Vacuum forming isn’t some sort of dark art,” says Nic Neath, head of North America sales for Formech. “It takes some engineering and arts skills, but it can be done” by the lay person.
Among his rules of thumb: make sure you have the right materials for the tooling – the mold or object that creates your part or prototype. If you’re running thousands of pieces, for instance, you’ll need aluminum tooling.
Another tip: Watch your undercuts. If the shape of your mold has lips or ledges, you won’t be able to lift out your part.
Formech recently released one of its newest vacuum-forming machines, the 508FS. It retails for about $10,000 and comes with an array of bells and whistles, including 11 settings that allow you to change heat zones, heat intensity and timing.
“You could definitely do production runs of hundreds or even thousands on these,” Neath says of the 508FS. “You’re upping the maintenance schedule, but it will do it.
“Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics cranks out packaging all day long on our machines,” he adds.
But you don’t have the money or room for a prototyping machine, you say. That’s OK. There are dozens of rapid prototyping companies that take your CAD drawings – some even will work with sketches on cocktail napkins – and turn them into parts and prototypes.
Proto Labs based in Maple Plain, Minn., can give you a quote and make you a part or prototype in as fast as one business day. It’s among a burgeoning number of CNC shops that cater to independent inventors as well as multinational corporations.
CEO Brad Cleveland says Proto Labs is the fastest at turning CAD drawings into parts and prototypes. This boast is made possible by the company’s fully automated, web-based quoting and ordering software.
While it can make and ship an order in a day, the standard turnaround is 10 business days, Cleveland says.
Cost can range from $10 for simple parts such as small plastic discs, to thousands of dollars for, say, wings made of titanium. No matter what type of part-making or prototyping path you take, you have to start with a well-designed 3D model, ideally one that’s designed for manufacturability, notes Joan Lockhart, vice present of sales and marketing for 3D software and tools maker Sensable, based in Wilmington, Mass.
Among her guidelines:
• Make sure your digital model can be manufactured accurately and efficiently, whether you’re making just one prototype or creating tooling to produce millions of parts
• Before you pay to produce a part, analyze and prep your design for production
• Check and fix draft angles. If you’ll be printing a mold to use for short runs, adjusting draft angles to ensure easy removal of the part is critical
• Shell (hollow out) the model to save on the cost of materials
• Make sure your modeling system will create and output a water tight mesh
• Adjust your model to address specific material issues, perhaps beefing up certain sections of the design to avoid breakage.
Lower prices, ease of use and competition among service providers have never made it easier for inventors to get their finished products to market.
When it comes to prototypes and parts, the force of technology is with you.
