3D Metal Prototyping at Maca Supply Company
Maca Company offers rapid metal prototyping of various metals like Hi Chrome, Gray Iron, Ductile Iron, Steel, and Stainless Steel. We own high-quality equipment to perform the rapid prototyping process of different metals successfully. Thanks to our metallurgists for carefully handling the metal 3D printing and making us one of Utah's top metal prototyping companies.
What is Metal Rapid Prototyping?
In any manufacturing process, prototypes in general, are the rough draft of the final product. The prototypes are built away earlier before the product design starts. The product designers and developers use these prototypes to test and develop the final product.
There are various types of prototypes based on the materials used to create them. They are made from multiple metal manufacturing techniques like CNC machining, casting, or sheet metal forming and are manufactured from any metal materials chosen by the metallurgists in the foundry.
Metal rapid prototyping is a manufacturing technology used to turn metal designs into solid 3D objects. 3D prototyping is one of the fastest metal prototyping can produce prototypes in just weeks. It is heavily used in the industrial applications of automotive, medical, industrial equipment, consumer products, oil & gas, aerospace & defense, and dies & tools.
Why Opt for Metal Prototypes?
Engineers usually tend to prepare plastic prototypes for metal objects to reduce the overall cost required to design the prototype. This can be done only when characteristics like strength, flexibility, and conductivity are unimportant to develop the final metal design.
But, we at Maca, as a well-known casts foundry in Utah, mainly deal with only functional prototyping of the metals. This type of prototyping helps in a detailed analysis of the material characteristics of any metal. Also, metal prototypes are easy to convert into final metal parts when compared to plastic prototypes. This escalates the chances of early investment and commercial success.
The 3D Metal Prototyping Process we Follow at Our Foundry.
Create CAD design
The first step of the metal prototyping process is scanning the metal object with a 3D object scanner. Once the machine scans the thing, it creates a 3D model of the object in CAD.
Analyzing the CAD model
Once the design is scanned, the designers analyze the 3D model created. This is to identify any design flaws in the CAD model and work on the design modifications if required. The changes can sometimes be adding support structures where there is a risk of breakage. The CAD model is converted to an STL file, and the object is sliced into 2D layers stacked on top of one another. The STL file is then transferred to the printer using custom machine software.
