Re: FW: Re[2]: Future of RP Re:Further Comments

From: Mark Bannister (app2web@appal.com)
Date: Thu Dec 17 1998 - 17:51:16 EET


The benefits of unibody construction far outwiegh any disadvanatage. While we
are dreaming I came up with a few (some have been mentioned before):

     Extremely simplified design (when we protoype something how many
     times is it to see if things fit together properly and then
     function?)
     No assembly cost -- cost of assembly and packaging will most often
     be more than the raw materials.
     And while we are on packaging, why not build the package at the same
     time as the product?
     Decorating. If you can make multiple materials, then you can do
     colors, designs, etc. I've had many plastic parts where the
     printing costs more than the molded plastic.

But ideally to do all this rapid production needs to move to the molecular
level. Not really all that far off. They now have tiny thrusters for
maneuvering, tiny recievers to accept instructions, microscopic drills and
optics.....
Mark Bannister

Jianpeng Dong wrote:

> Making compex pieces out of unibody construction is very attractive, but
> it also has the following disadvantages, among others:
>
> (1) hard to maintain. If part of the construction is out of order, this
> failure may lead to a complete new replacement of the old construction.
> Therefore, when people buy unibody constructions, they might consider this
> extra cost. In order to compete with the traditional assembly
> constructions, unibody constructions built by RP technologies should have
> a price attraction.
>
> (2) Mr. Morgan's argument is very correct. Assembly constructions need
> some time and some work to be put together, but they are convenient for
> transportation and storation.
>
> (3) From another point of view, it is fun to put those components
> together. This experience is helpful to educate our children, activate
> their space imagination.
>
> For the future of RP, we might put our efforts to improve the
> product quality, to enhance productivity and increase material
> adaptability. If we could come up with a technology that manufacture
> products with a real "Rapid" way while at the same time keep the high
> accuracy and good ethetics, RP would be the real standard in the industry.
>
> Jianpeng
>
>
> For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:47:43 EEST