technical comments

From: Philippe Lalande (lalandep@ERE.UMontreal.CA)
Date: Thu Jan 30 1997 - 20:37:03 EET


On wednesday, 29 january, Elaine Persall wrote

> ... Could this group build the same widget on different systems and then
>publish the "agreed on data" to this listing? ...

Elaine

In Octobre 1994, Dick Aubin of United Technologies presented the results of
such an experiment at the "3e Assises sur le prototypage rapide" in Paris.
Sponsored by Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, the study was entitled : A
World Wide Assissment of Rapid Prototyping Technologies.

About twenty companies were sollicited to participate in the study and were
asked to produce four copies of a common test part which integrated the
most common known difficulties found in rapid prototyping. Only about half
actually provided parts but the results spanned most of the range of rapid
prototyping technologies that were commercially available at that time.

The produced parts were then evaluated and compared and the results
presented in the form of charts and diagrams. Other information was also
sollicited from the participants in order to complete the description of
each technology's state. This included system and maintenance costs, cost
of training, system capabilities, limitations to feature size and accuracy
expectations.

I have found this study to be particularly useful and since I believe Dick
Aubin to be a contributor to this list, perhaps he could tell us if a more
recent edition of this or similar industry testing has taken place.

Philippe Lalande

Philippe Lalande, professeur adjoint
Ecole de design industriel
Universite de Montreal
Montreal, Quebec
+++++++++++++++++++++++
tel 514 343 7911
fax 514 343 5694



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