The Pitfalls of Rapid Prototyping Services: Everything You Need to Know

Prototyping is a critical step in bringing new products to market. It can help avoid costly issues during production by troubleshooting them earlier in the research and development process. But rapid prototyping, while fast and convenient, comes with risks that aren’t always obvious until you’re already deep into a production program. Knowing what those risks are, and how the right manufacturing partner mitigates them, can save you significant time and money down the line.

The Appeal of Rapid Prototyping Services

Prototyping services are specialists at quickly bringing your design to 3D life so you can check its viability before committing to full production. Some services transact completely online — all you need to do is upload your design, submit it for production, and get your part in the mail. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s low commitment.

For a quick visual or dimensional check, that can be all you need. But for manufacturers heading toward metal stamping or plastic injection molding at production scale, the rapid prototyping model has meaningful limitations.

The Pitfalls of Rapid Prototyping

No Design for Manufacturability input. Design for manufacturability is typically not considered by prototyping services. What seems to work well in a 3D printed prototype might not be viable when you take it to production using metal stamping or plastic molding. And as you probably already know, design revisions once you reach production get more costly and complex the farther into the job you get.

Less consultative process. Because of the highly transactional nature of prototyping services, you won’t get as much input if you need to troubleshoot your design. That might require you heading back to the drawing board, deciding what to change, and starting the process over again — with no engineering guidance to help you get it right.

Prototyping equipment doesn’t match production equipment. Rapid prototyping services may not have expertise in the eventual method of manufacturing you will use for full production. A part that behaves well on a 3D printer or in a soft-tooled prototype may behave very differently when it hits a stamping press or injection mold running production tolerances. If your prototype wasn’t made on equipment similar to what you’ll use in production, it’s not truly validating your design, it’s just confirming what it looks like.

No path from prototype to production. Rapid prototyping services produce parts. They don’t produce programs. When you’re ready to move to full production, you’re starting over with a new partner who has no context for your part, your tolerances, or the decisions that shaped the design.

The Right Way to Prototype

Working with your contract manufacturer to produce a prototype isn’t usually as fast or simple as uploading a drawing and getting a finished part in the mail. Most contract manufacturers that offer prototyping take a more consultative approach, working with you to tweak your design so it’s optimized for manufacturability before putting metal to a press or plastic to a mold.

While this can take a little extra time at the beginning of your project, your patience will be rewarded. By verifying the viability of your design using production equipment, your manufacturer can get a better sense of how the part will behave during full runs. This allows them to correct any issues before ramping things up. You probably only want to use the same equipment for your prototypes that you’ll be using during production — otherwise you’re not learning what you need to learn.

Advantages of prototyping with your contract manufacturer:

• Set your project up for smoother production when you prototype with design for manufacturability in mind
• Create your prototypes using similar equipment that you’ll use for production
• Get a clearer picture of what your finished product will actually be like
• Transition faster from prototyping to first run and then full production
• Get more cost-effective help for design revisions

Prototyping Done Right at LMC Industries

If you’re working on developing new parts or revising existing designs for metal stampings, plastic injection moldings, or insert moldings, LMC Industries combines rapid prototyping with the engineering support that standalone prototyping services don’t offer. Our team works with you to apply DFM principles from the start, prototype on production-representative equipment, and carry your program directly into full production.

Connect with an LMC expert today to optimize your design and take the next step toward smooth, revenue-generating production.