Rapid prototyping service is one of a kind
An
University of Greenwich product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jan 30, 2007
A new rapid prototyping service offered by the University of Greenwich is the only service of its kind in the South East of England.
Businesses can develop new products in days rather than months, thanks to a new service at the University of Greenwich.
Engineering staff, based at the Medway campus in Kent, have combined IT expertise with state-of-the-art machines to offer a process known as rapid prototyping.
It is the only service of its kind in the South East of England.
Ian Cakebread of the university says: "We can make a prototype of a machine part, or a toy for instance, in hours".
"The manufacturer can take it away, test it, come back to us for fine-tuning and have it in production in days".
One business which has taken advantage of the rapid prototyping facility is Delphi Diesel Systems Technical Centre in Gillingham.
Paul Charman, Centre Manager, says: "Delphi develops high pressure common rail pumps".
"We also produce prototypes for development teams and supply to our customers".
"It is vital that these prototypes are made to the highest quality and delivered on time".
"We have been associated with Greenwich for some time and have recently worked closely on rapid prototyping projects".
"The availability of a local centre where we can develop models of new components in a few hours is a significant advantage and has allowed us to shorten our own lead times".
"We have used models produced by Greenwich to make aluminium castings for our prototype pumps and these are now on test vehicles located throughout Europe".
Common rail pumps inject fuel into diesel engines.
They have helped to make diesel more competitive with petrol engines by reducing engine noise and nitrogen emissions.
Cakebread says: "Before, an engineer would produce drawings of the new product and then a modeller would manufacturer it using conventional machine tools".
"The development process could last months".
"Now we can offer local manufacturers not just the machinery but the expertise in IT and engineering to help them develop products quickly and cheaply".
A company can either provide a computerised specification known as a CAD file or a model of the item.
The model is popped into a scanner which makes a three- dimensional virtual model.
The company can even bring a drawing and staff will convert it into the standard technical language (STL) used for computers.
Then the information is fed into a 'fusion deposition machine' which builds up a model, a layer at a time.
"It's a bit like an inkjet printer, with the print head crossing the page again and again", says Cakebread.
"It builds up layers of acrylic plastic and is accurate to 0.25mm".
"The detail is so good, the Imperial War Museum recently worked with us to reproduce a finely engraved war medal".
The university has used rapid prototyping to make a robotic hand, sports science equipment, industrial moulds and engine parts.
Projects under consideration include architectural models and scale models of ships.
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