Let us help you take the guesswork out of choosing the right low-volume manufacturing technique for your project. Direct Digital Manufacturing has distinct advantages and disadvantages. And so does Rapid Tooling. Find out how engineers just like you are saving time and money by choosing between these technologies.We are definitely seeing an exciting trend towards the use of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology for production parts.
•25% of RedEye customers order parts for end-use applications
•42% of Fortus 3D Production System owners use their system for manufacturing parts (in some frequency)
•Even Dimension 3D Printers are sometimes used for manufacturing
The key advantages of using Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) apply only to low and sometimes mid-volume production applications. Because of this, DDM is often compared to rapid tooling which produces aluminum cores and cavities intended for injection molding.
When considering which process to use for your product, Rapid Tooling (RT) vs. Direct Digital Manufacturing; here are the 7 key things to consider:
1.Quantity - Do you need 100 or 5,000? Even if you need thousands of parts, DDM is a great way to get product to market faster using it as a bridge-to-tooling.
2.Geometry Complexity - The more complex your part, the more complex and costly it is to produce a rapid tool.
3.Material Options - With rapid tooling you're open to a broad range of materials, but with FDM it's limited material choices still offers the benefit of production-grade thermoplastics.
4.Tight Tolerances - For simple geometries RT is ideal, but FDM has shown to produce parts with accuracies up to 0.003 of an inch.
5.Revisions/Modifications - If there's any risk, especially in the early phases of product production you can't beat DDM. Because there's no tool to be modified, simply continue production with revised digital files.
6.Surface Smoothness - nothing beats an injected molded part, but if the application is an internal component or surface aesthetics don't require a perfectly smooth surface, then DDM is an excellent alternative.
7.On Demand - in a digital world, nothing beats the benefits of direct digital manufacturing. DDM allows you to produce parts directly from the digitally created 3D files.
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