(no subject)

From: Brock Hinzmann (SRI International)
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 1993

From: Brock Hinzmann (SRI  International)
To: André Dolenc (Helsinki University of Technology), Richard Aubin (United Technologies), Robert Brown (The Gillette  Company), RP-ML, Terry Wohlers (Wohlers Associates)
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 1993
Dear Andre,
     Thank you for getting this mailing list off the ground. If it worked, you should get two copies of this, 
one to your personal box and one to the mailing list. Let's see where it leads.

To the Rapid Prototyping Mailing List:
     As you may know, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) is forming a new rapid prototyping 
association (SME/RPA) in the United States, with European participation. I will copy as many of the 
members of the current advisory committee for whom I have e-mail addresses as possible. In Europe, you 
may also contact Dr. Philip M. Dickens, University of Nottingham, England, UK, fax +44-602-514000, or 
Dominique Humblot, Association Francaise de Prototypage Rapide, Paris, France, fax +33-1-45 03 07 88.
     The purpose of SME/RPA is to encourage the development and use of RP through educational 
resources, conferences, seminars and the like. Membership is open to anyone who pays the membership 
fee. 
     For my own part, I am director of a technology monitoring service, through which we track 
developments in 38 technologies. I monitor only one technology personally, that being RP, because I feel 
it impacts such a wide range of other management areas, including new product development, computer-
aided design, materials developments, machining, and computer-integrated manufacturing. By keeping up 
with advances in RP, I stay aware of developments in other technologies and management concepts, 
which has led me to such things as a short study and a longer Report on the use of industrial design in 
strategic planning. It is my belief that as companies begin to reach parity in cost, time required to get new products to market, and number of defects in manufacturing, the design of the product may become the only factor that distinguishes it from the competition. RP and several other technologies will play critical roles in visualizing and verifying the design of products, as well as meeting all the other cost, time, and quality requirements. 
     Some of the topics covered in our monthly newsletter on RP have included: industrial design, data 
visualization, RP of CT and MRI data, CAD conferencing, virtual manufacturing, CAD for RP, needs-
driven R&D, heterogeneous models (Cubital workshop), micromachining, desktop manufacturing, and a 
variety of developments in applications and new technologies worldwide. We would like to continue this 
broad discussion of RP and any topics of interest to you will likely also be of interest to our clients. We 
have offices in Europe, North America, and Asia that can followup on leads you may have and I would be 
happy to pass along whatever we find out as a result of your inquiries.

Brock Hinzmann


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