3D Printing - An alternative to Pattern Casting

Imagining, Designing, Developing and producing a 3-Dimensional prototype of any product before the advent of 3D printers was a time consuming and difficult process. It involved a lot of iterations, rough sketches, trial-and-errors and sample making. This was in the time when pattern casting was done of rubber or plastic and most of the times was done by hand. It required specialized skill sets and a lot of labour to carry out and was an extremely complicated process which took too much time and resources to make a single product. Pattern casting therefore needed a lot of investments and research to carry out.

Designers and businessmen now heave a sigh of relief with modern 3D printing technology. Now what used to take months takes just a few days. You can modify a products design by scanning it using a 3D scanner and then make the changes accordingly in the design or make your own design via a CAD file.

Pattern Casting - An outdated manufacturing technique

Industrial Manufacturers are aware of the tedious and time-consuming nature of pattern casting in the production cycle - Just making the pattern takes about 25 days to 3 months! Not to mention the countless hours spent on designing the die for the pattern and getting the cast made according to your specifications. With 3D Technology now, this whole process is shortened to a mere 2-3 days. All that needs to be done is to give a CAD file to the 3D printer and you have your prototype printed right away, depending on the dimensions and the complexity of the prototype.

3D printing has now made it possible to print designs that were considered impossible to do earlier with conventional methods. It has ushered a new era of new thoughts, designs, efficiency, affordability and productivity.

Let us see some of the benefits of 3D printing as against Pattern Casting:

• Accuracy - 3D technology gives you an extremely accurate version of the prototype you expect as the 3D printers are programmed to print exactly as per the requirement, not wasting even a single drop of polymer(or any other material for that matter). This reduces wastage and minimizes post production work.
• Cost and Time efficiency - 3D printing eliminates many processes that were previously needed for pattern casting. These printers also work much faster than the traditional pattern casting techniques, resulting in efficient saving of cost and time.
• Agility - With the immense flexibility that 3D printing offers, you have a lot of options available to you for making changes to your designs. You can also optimize and get the best efficient design whenever required.
• Lowest Turnaround Time - It is often said “Time Saved is Time Gained". With 3D printing cutting deliverable time drastically, businesses can now think about expanding their operations and focusing on their further production procedures.

There is no doubt that 2018 and the years to come are going to be the years for 3D printing. This game changing technology is now going to be ubiquitous in everybody’s home within the next 10-15 years. We need to now focus on how to use this technology in the best way possible and how to take advantages of this immense opportunity.

For many of you for whom 3D printing is an novel concept, VURO can help you turn your designs into reality. Just visit VURO – 3D Printing Services or contact us on care@vuro.com.