The 3-D printers can be situated in an office, according to Fish. Employees don't need to take special precautions around the starch-based printing materials that his company's printer uses. It's making a significant impact in the prototyping area, where time and cost were previously prohibitive. A customer will call us and say, 'I need this in a week. He said the printer gives him the ability to model a part quickly and to physically show it to the customer.
Color prints are also available.
The rapid prototyping and 3-D printing processes, however, are two separate animals, and companies select the process they need. A rapid prototyping machine builds solid models from plastic or other material, using CAD output. The models are often used all the way through the product-development process. On the other hand, 3-D printing normally refers to a modeling process performed by a similar machine that is often faster and less expensive, but is typically used earlier in the design stage for testing concepts, rather than perfecting a product model prior to its manufacture. Rapid prototyping systems, a technology now about a decade old, replicate the part exactly, but, for some companies, the machines are too costly.