Case Study – DDPROTOTYPE

Rapid Tooling Case

Martin.mu — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 01:01:24 +0000

Project Overview:

Manufacturing Process: Rapid Tooling | Plastic Injection Molding
Tooling Material: NAK 80
Molding Material: Fire Retardant PC+ABS
Tooling Life: 300 Thousands Shots
Quantity: 2000 Units
Lead Time: 20Days

Customer was an America based company specializing in developing products in medical devices. Considering production volume, consistent quality, cost & time saving, rapid tooling and injection molding was the ideal process. In addition, we offered two suggestions to improve the product’s fitting also reduce its manufacturing cost.

DDPROTOTYPE provides aluminum mold and steel mold for rapid tooling according to the needs of customers. It can hand over the parts of your designated materials within 2-5 weeks. we combine rapid injection molding advanced equipment with proprietary technology and experienced manufacturing teams to help you reduce design risk and save overall production cost.

Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) the back tooling core. To reduce the cost and time of tooling fabrication as well as the injection molding, the two parts were put into one tooling with one cavity of each part.

The CNC and EDM milled front tooling core prior to sanding and texturing. EDM was usually to mill the CNC round corners to straight or sharp ones, also mill the complex features that were out of CNC capability.

Placing M2 brass nut for insert molding. Since customer was new to injection molding technique, we offered the design optimizations to place M2 nut well and improve the parts fitting, also reduce tooling cost.

The injection molded parts for delivery. We not only make prototypes and parts, also help customers in right direction to save money and time, we do believe the customer’s success is also our success.

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Anodized Aluminum

Martin.mu — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 09:27:05 +0000

Anodized aluminum is a very popular prototype, very easy to be machined, beautiful appearance, corrosion resistance, is the preferred solution for many designers. Hendry, a designer from Australia, is committed to the development of water fluidding. He searched for aluminum prototyping in Google and found DDPROTOTYPE, a leading prototype machining company in China. For this project, red, black and blue three luster colors, and the need for laser engraved logo are the challenges in CNC machining. The hard anodized aluminum prototype has stronger corrosion resistance and longer service life than ordinary anodizing. DDPROTOTYPE took 9 days to complete the project. DHL express delivery only took 4 days to reach the customer’s address in Australia, thus establishing a long-term strategic partnership.

Project Overview:

Prototype Manufacturing: CNC Aluminum Machining
Prototyping Material: Aluminum 6061-T6
Finishing Service: Laser Engraving, Hard Anodizing, Glossy Painting
Prototype Tolerance: ± 0.05 mm
Prototype Quantity: 50 Pieces
Lead Time: 9 Days

As the geometry of the aluminum prototype is not complex, in order to minimize the cost, DDPROTOTYPE chooses to use a 3-axis CNC machining center. CNC machining center from fanako, Japan has strong milling ability, fast machining time, and can mill smooth aluminum parts with strict tolerance. The tolerance of ± 0.05 mm for aluminum prototypes is not a difficult thing, it should be said that it is very easy.

CNC milling aluminum prototype. The drill bit of FANUC CNC machining center rotates at high speed, and the surplus material is removed by subtraction process. After 2 hours, the smooth milling surface is obtained, thus eliminating the manual intervention and greatly saving the production time and cost.

According to the size of the screw hole marked on the drawing, the engineer uses M8 tapping to process the required four screw holes; DDPROTOTYPE has strong hard anodizing ability, which eliminates the milling trace on the surface of the prototype, thus improving the surface smoothness of the prototype.

Drawing three different gloss colors on the surface of aluminum prototypes is a challenge, which requires strong painting ability and correction experience. Fortunately, the engineers of DDPROTOTYPE have 15 years of rich experience and are fully equipped with this ability. Drawing red, black and blue colors has been fully recognized and respected by customers.

DDPROTOTYPE and DHL have established a long-term cooperation relationship, each order has more than 40% discount, so the freight is relatively low. It usually takes only 3-5 days for parts to be delivered to European and American countries, which is very fast. It took only four days for Hendry to receive a satisfactory prototype. Before shipment, DDPROTOTYPE carefully checked the quality of each part and wrapped it in foam bags for safe transportation.

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Aluminum Prototyping

Martin.mu — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 04:14:07 +0000

Project Overview:

Manufacturing process: CNC machining and boring
Part material: Aluminum 6061-T6
Part size: 390.00 × 213.00 × 130.00 mm
Surface treatment:Sanding, Tapping 1-1/2″ BSPT & M12, Anodizing
Manufacturing tolerance: ± 0.05 mm
Quantity: 1 unit
Leading Time：5 days

The customer is a Japanese company that provides professional services and engineering solutions for fluid systems around the world. Double-sided milling, shape stability and milling tolerances were the challenges of the project.

CNC Prototyping Steps:

Step 1: CNC machining on the first side. As a subtractive manufacturing process, the substrate in the block to be milled is usually 3 cm longer, 3 cm wider, and 0.5 cm thick than the size of the part. It usually starts with rough milling with large powerful cutting tools to quickly remove unwanted materials, then gradually shrinks to smaller tools to mill fine and delicate features.

Step 2: CNC machining on the second side. For 3-axis CNC multifaceted milling parts, the workpiece is manually rotated for side-by-side milling, and the workpiece must be accurately repositioned to ensure milling tolerances. Rotate the 5 sides of this aluminum prototype (usually the 6 sides of the part) for milling. Use ABS fixture (yellow bottom) to prevent workpiece deformation during prototype machining.

Step 3:CNC machining on the third side. After milling the first and second sides, the main shape of this aluminum prototype appeared. The fourth aspect is milling 6 holes in the bottom of the part.
Step 4: CNC machining on the fifth side. One of the two deep holes on this side is drilled instead of milled because it exceeds the milling capacity. Tapping 1-1 / 2 “BSPT is to achieve tightness and also drill holes.

Step 5: CNC milling the prototype before surface finishing. All cutting lines and burrs on the ground surface are removed by sanding and then further sandblasted and dark blue anodized.
Step 6: Final finishing of aluminum anodizing. The anodized film makes the parts beautiful, corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant. Aluminum anodizing can achieve different colors and gloss.

Step 7: Delivered finished aluminum prototype. After completing the hydraulic and assembly tests on the prototypes that arrived, the customer was pleased to be able to make small batches of 10 units soon.

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Bicycle Lampshade Prototype

Martin.mu — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 01:27:30 +0000

Bicycle Lampshade Prototype

Project Overview:

Material：Acrylic (PMMA) .
Manufacturing method: Silicone mold vacuum casting
Surface Finishing: polish
Quantity: 7 pieces.
Lead Time: 5 Days

Summary:

This is a project of bicycle rear lampshade prototype. Customers from Japan found DDPROTOTYPE by searching “prototype machining” in Google. Our professional website has attracted customers’ attention.. After the price comparison, DDPROTOTYPE is 40% lower than that of Japan’s local rapid prototyping company. Therefore, the customer arranges DDPROTOTYPE to manufacture the lampshade prototype.
After receiving the prototype, the customer was very satisfied and established a long-term strategic partnership with DDPROTOTYPE.

Select machining method

The part size is about 59 × 33 × 10 mm. According to the customer’s requirements, this part needs to be transparent, and the order quantity is 7 pieces. There is no doubt that this is a typical case of rapid prototyping. In general, we first think of CNC machining. However, CNC machining sometimes has limitations. For example, there are many “hexagonal ridges” inside the lampshade, so it is impossible to use CNC to achieve sharp corners. That is to say, it will be a huge project to use CNC machining to polish some details into transparent bodies.

Prototyping Solution

After many rounds of deliberation, the mechanic of DDPROTOTYPE finally adopted Silicone mold vacuum casting. Vacuum casting can not only complete “hexagonal ridge”, but also finish polishing better in finishing service, so that the lampshade is completely transparent. Therefore, vacuum casting is the best solution for this project.

Prototyping With Vacuum Casting

First of all, made a prototyping by precise 3D printing, it is much more cost-effective than CNC machining, and the ridge detail was created correctly without any polishing.
Then we used this prototype to build silicone mold, and produced the parts by vacuum casting (Please check https://www..com/vacuum-casting to get more information about vacuum casting service).

Prototype Polishing

After a series of machining, the prototype does not very transparent. It doesn’t matter. Our technologist sprayed some “gloss oil” on the prototype surface to make the lampshade prototype as transparent and bright as possible. DDPROTOTYPE only took 5 days to produce 7 lampshade prototypes. Customers are very satisfied with our prototype machining service.

Advantage of Vacuum Casting

In summary, there are many advantages of using vacuum casting to do this job, such as:
1) Create the ridge pattern precisely and fast.
2) Save much time that polish the part to be very smooth.
3) The cost is much lower than CNC machining.

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Robot Prototype Machining

Martin.mu — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 00:19:08 +0000

Summary:

DDPROTOTYPE has rich experience in robot prototype machining, serving robot designers in more than 20 countries around the world and providing comprehensive robot prototype machining solutions. We offer a wide range of manufacturing technologies, including 3D printing, CNC machining, injection molding, vacuum casting, etc. In this way, we can ensure that your robot prototype or parts will be produced with the best technology and materials. We are committed to the production of high fidelity physical prototypes and implementing the most rigorous verification and testing procedures.

DDPROTOTYPE Robotics Prototyping Applications

1 Robot and Manipulator Prototyping and Design (based on task descriptions or other parameters)
2 Rapid prototyping of robotic devices, sensors, actuators (including web-based manufacturing/ prototyping)
3 Prototyping and simulations of Micro and nano systems.
4 Automated manufacturing processes, systems, and techniques
5 Prototyping robot-assisted medical devices and bio-medical engineering applications
6 Prototyping for Information extraction
7 Other emerging paradigms and technologies that are applicable to prototyping activities in Robotics and AI applications.

It is necessary to create a prototype:

By creating robot prototypes, you can present your ideas to potential customers and investors in concrete forms. This gives you a platform to ask for feedback and test the value of the idea in the market.
Robot prototyping is the process of creating the first version of robot design. Ddprototype’s machinists process prototypes to test new designs and improve accuracy. From this point of view, prototyping can test the function of the real system, rather than the theoretical verification.

Functional Prototypes

Prototypes bring your ideas to life as a functional model of your concept or product. Functional prototypes are often required.
Compared with drawings or theoretical research, working robot prototypes will provide you with the most powerful and persuasive tools to collect accurate feedback, identify design defects, minimize errors, eliminate misunderstandings and redo, and show your ideas to potential investors or stakeholders.

Service mode of DDPROTOTYPE:

1. CNC plastic and metal rapid prototyping prototype
2. 3D printing (object / SLA / SLS / FDM)
3. CNC machining, suitable for small batch production
4. RTV vacuum casting and pressure casting, suitable for small batch production
5 sheet metal processing, stamping, punching, bending services
6. Injection molding for mass production
7. Post treatment process: etching, polishing, sandblasting, anodizing, chrome plating, powder spraying, PU and UV painting, etc

DDPROTOTYPE Quality Inspection

Three steps of quality inspection:
Step 1.After the parts are machined, check the drawing specifications again.
Step 2.It should be checked before and after finishing service.
Step 3.The manager will check the product before packaging and transportation.
Also each processing and finished products images will be sent to our customers.

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Artificial Leg Prototype

Martin.mu — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 23:11:24 +0000

Artificial Leg Prototype

Project Overview:

Manufacturing Process: CNC Machining
Material: stainless steel
Surface Finishing: machined
Manufacturing Tolerance: ± 0.02 mm
Quantity: 4 Pieces
Lead Time: 4 Days

Medical Prototyping & Artificial Leg Prototype

Mr. Zanuk, from Australia, is engaged in the development of medical prototype to improve the lives of patients,for example artificial leg prototype. Zanuk searched “Medical Prototyping” on Google, and found that the DDPROTOTYPE website was particularly sophisticated and professional, and then uploaded a .step file for quotation. Jennifer handled the business in the first place and made constructive suggestions.

Manufacturing Step By Step:

Step 1: Analyzing the 2D drawings and 3D drawings, we can see that the part needs to be machined from 4 directions, and it needs CNC turning. For fewer setup steps, CNC turning + 4-axis CNC machining is a reasonable choice.

Compile Programs

Step 2: Our mechanics use advanced software to compile programs based on 2D and 3D drawings. This operation can’t have any error, usually need to be simulated after programming. Only after confirming it is correct, can it be formally machined on CNC machines.

CNC Turning & CNC Machining

Step3: using CNC turning, our mechanics install stainless steel bars on CNC lathes and process the bars into semi-finished products according to established procedures. In 2017, we purchased two Haas CNC lathes. Generally, such an advanced lathe can guarantee that the precision meets the customer’s requirements and even exceeds expectations.

Step4: CNC machining the stainless steel parts. Strong cutting capability and reasonable cutting tool path were the two crucial factors to get a quality milled part with tight tolerance, smooth milled surface and short milling time. An ABS milled fixture was used to assist the CNC milling.

DDPROTOTYPE provides one-stop service to meet your rapid prototyping service and low-volume manufacturing needs. Since 2008, our sales have increased by more than 50% annually. Global customers recognize our quality and expertise from a Chinese rapid prototyping company. We are happy to help customers produce parts and validate their designs. In some cases, we can provide free samples to our customers to evaluate our quality and service. Our mission is to provide high quality parts at a lower price.

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Aluminum Hexagons

Martin.mu — Thu, 30 May 2024 19:45:07 +0000

Summary：

Mr. Hoy, who is a film maker, a director of photography ,more precise from the United States ,always incorporate a lot of engineering in his projects to enable him shots . In April 2017, Mr. Hoy searched for “cnc aluminum machining” on Google and get in touch with us to request quote for a aluminum hexagon prototype made from aluminum alloy. When checking our website www.DDPROTOTYPE.com, he feels that our company should be a reliable manufacturer of rapid prototype china. After checking the quotation for hexagon,the price also meet their financial budget,He started thinking about working with us.

Mr. Hoy purchased one piece of AL6061 hexagon prototype at first. After receiving the 3D drawings in step format, our sales manager Michin discussed the manufactuing solutions with the technical director and told Mr. Hoy that cnc aluminum machining is one of the major processing industries that we are good at metal prototype machining as well as one of our main businesses, so that one piece of hexagon can be completed within five days. As a senior member of DHL and FedEx, we have an advantage in freight but with short shipping time which can ensure that the goods can be delivered to him quickly.

After finishing the parts, It takes 4 days to ship it to Los Angeles via fedex and Mr. Hoy was very satisfied with the prototype manufactured and expressed his hope to establish a long-term friendly relationship with us in the future. As of July 2018, DDPROTOTYPE has produced nearly 3000 pcs of prototypes for Mr. Hoy.

How our story begins:

Get in touch with Mr Hoy on April 3rd, 2017 and quote for 1piece and 100pieces of aluminum hexagons, and arrange for the manufacturing of 1piece soon.
On April 18th, 2017, Mr Hoy received the sample and he was very satisfied with our cnc aluminum machining.
On July 12, 2017, Mr. Hoy introduced his friend to Michin who has some parts to be machined.

On January 3rd, 2018, we continued to explore the best cnc machining solution for 100pcs of Hexagon to reduce the machining costs. On January 18th, our opinions reached an agreement and began to arrange for the cnc aluminum machining. On January 25th, Mr Hoy received the 100pieces of prototypes and told us that he was very satisfied with products. However, he do realize that he made a tiny design error on them, making the perpendicular through holes slightly too tight for fitting a 1/4 rod comfortably and ask Michin to help him remember to correct that for the next batch!On the same time,he would also like to explore how to take the price down on next orders of bigger numbers.

On February 27th, 2018, we reached an agreement on the processing of 1000pcs hexagons once again and begin to arrange for the manufacturing of 1000pcs of hexagon and screws matched. On March 26th,2018, hexagons and screws were received, Mr Hoy emailed us that the hexagons and screws arrived in good order and very nice work once again! On the same time, Mr Hoy asked that whether we have the possibility to manufacture in carbon fiber,and he would love to see a version of the hexagon in carbon fiber and investigate a prize for bigger batches, but we suggest that the hexagon is not suitable to be machined in carbon fiber, Carbon fiber is thermoset material and it is with low density, to increase it’s strength,enough thickness is required while hexagon is too small especially threading ,and Carbon fiber material cost is also high.On April 18th, 2018,we continue to explore cheaper materials and processing methods to achieve bigger batch processing, and tried to make it with POM, PA + GF30% and PMMA, but the test result shows that it might not be rigid enough for bigger constructions but only decorative pieces . Die casting method was proposed later but since the die casting could not be proceeded with oxidizing but only powder-coated,meanwhile powder-coated would be slightly thicker which will affect the tolerance; Finally , we proposed the extrusion molding method which can be oxidized, and there is basically no difference in shape, Mr hoy was satisfied with it and really appreciate our suggestion and support.

On April 18th, 2018,we began to explore the big hexagon. Firstly Mr hoy wants to make one with ABS or aluminum but cost should be cheap but finally both them are too high to proceed with . On May 31th, we began to discuss the manufacturing of 90pcs of big hexagons, as the price meet his budge and he trusts our processing quality , on June 8th, we began to manufacture 45pcs of it . On July 3rd, 100pcs of latches are ready to machining which are matched to big hexagons. During cnc aluminum machining, it was found that as T-shape cutter is not able to makes full contact to parts and 1.5mm gap is existed which makes the arc 1.5mm away from the original drawing;Meanwhile,the latches should make full contact to the arc of big hexagons, then we check with Mr hoy whether it is ok to change the design of latches,we suggest that the material can be changed from AL6061 to AL7075 or even stronger material if he worried about the strength of the latched,after understanding the difficulties with the slotting T-shape cutter, he told Michin to proceed with AL7075.

When receiving the latches and big hexagons,Mr hoy emailed Michin that the latches work great and he think that DDPROTOTYPE did a wonderful job on the machining and finishing, he is very happy with our cooperation and communication and the meticulousness that we took care of this job.
On June 12th, 2018, we began to explore the manufacturing of medium-sized hexagon,when discussing the position where the T – shaped cutter can not reach,Mr hoy were very satisfied with our service spirit and cnc aluminum machining expertise, and he said that always such a pleasure to cooperate with DDPROTOTYPE.

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Automatic Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Martin.mu — Thu, 30 May 2024 16:02:50 +0000

DDPROTOTYPE is very lucky to be able to provide a series of solutions for the prototype of automatic unmanned underwater vehicle (AUV). With more than 15 years of prototype machining experience, DDPROTOTYPE supports the advanced 5-axis CNC machining centers from Japan and the United States. It can meet the challenge of any complex project and provide low-volume manufacturing and rapid prototyping services. DDPROTOTYPE is keen on technological innovation. It is very willing to invest in the development of rapid prototyping and introduce advanced equipment and technical personnel training. It has always made outstanding contributions to the world’s manufacturing industry and is respected by designers all over the world.

Automatic unmanned underwater vehicle Exhibition On a custom acrylic bracket

DDPROTOTYPE was founded because of the desire to provide excellent service to customers. Our engineers are the industry’s “technology database” to provide customers with component design and feedback.With 15years of traditional and advanced manufacturing experience, customers can get the answer here.After the establishment of the manufacturing plan, DDPROTOTYPE uses the best metal or plastic technology to create the best parts on time.

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