Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing

Citation

Rigelsford, J. (2003), "Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing", Assembly Automation, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2003.03323dae.002

Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing

Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing

A.E.W. Rennie, D.M. Jacobson and C.E. Bocking (Eds)Professional Engineering Publishing2002165 pp.ISBN 1-86058-374-1£79.00 (hardback)

Keywords: Rapid prototyping, Tooling, Manufacturing

"Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing" comprises 27 papers which were presented at the third national conference on rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, and rapid manufacturing, held in June 2002 at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, UK.

The first four papers address "RPBloX – a novel approach towards rapid prototyping", "Development of saddle components using CAD, rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, and reverse engineering", "Laser engineered net shaping^™ - technology and applications" and "The microstructure of laser-fabricated Ti6A14V".

"Rapid manufacture of burn-resistant Ti components using direct laser fabrication (DFL)", "Preliminary investigation of surface roughness and dimensional accuracy of ThermoJet and SLA parts" and "Multi-axis machining using a six-axis anthropomorphic robot" are amongst the subjects addressed in the following four papers. "Fabrication of customized bioceramic implants using selective laser sintering" and "A review of the manufacture of below-knee prosthetic sockets using rapid prototyping technologies" are presented in the following six papers, along with "Reducing the uncertainty of the prototyping decision" and "Benchmarking the rapid design and manufacture process".

The remaining papers discuss subjects including "Fabrication of functional metal parts using laser sintering – a case study", "Influence of the heat treatment cycles on the properties of selective laser sintered (SLS) Rapidsteel^2.0", "Ceramic microcomponents by rapid prototyping process chains" and "Rapid manufacturing of complex shapes by electrochemical machining".

Overall, this is an interesting reference text that will be of interest to both novice and experienced practitioners of rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, and rapid manufacturing technologies. Although the papers presented passed a "stringent reviewing process", the quality of some of them is rather disappointing. The lack of content and the briefness of the summary and conclusions in few of the presentations gives the feel of a technical overview rather than an academic paper.