Product Development and its Comparative Analysis by SLA and FDM Rapid Prototyping Processes

Abstract

To grab market and meeting deadlines has increased the scope
of new methods in product design and development.
Industries continuously strive to optimize the development
cycles with high quality and cost efficient products to
maintain market competitiveness. Thus the need of Rapid
Prototyping Techniques (RPT) has started to play pivotal role
in rapid product development cycle for complex product.
Dimensional accuracy and surface finish are the corner stone
of Rapid Prototyping (RP) especially if they are used for
mould development. The paper deals with the development of
part made with the help of Stereo-lithography (SLA) and
Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) processes to benchmark
and investigate on various parameters like material shrinkage
rate, dimensional accuracy, time, cost and surface finish. This
helps to conclude which processes can be proved to be
effective and efficient in mould development. In this research
work the emphasis was also given to the design stage of a
product development to obtain an optimum design solution for
an existing product.