Common sense of the four crafts of prototype production

After the completion of the product drawing or the design of a new product, usually before the product is put on the market, the market benefit analysis of the product will be done, or to confirm whether the drawing is different from the real object or whether the design is reasonable. Prototype will be the best choice for enterprises.

Generally speaking, a prototype is a functional template that first makes one or more models according to the product design or structural drawings to check the appearance or structural rationality without opening a mold. In fact, it is a template. There will be a lot of process processing in board making. Cloud Factory is the largest single board factory in China. It has its own physical factory to make online orders and offline orders. It tracks the processing progress in real time. Cloud Factory usually uses the following four processes in board making:

1. CNC (CNC processing center): CNC machine tool is excavated by a whole page according to numbered programs. CNC uses Mastercam system, which is mainly used to control CNC cutter path. CNC milling machine is specially used to process square and irregular objects, while lathe is used to process round objects. CNC can process some large workpieces. The maximum can reach 1800 * 900 * 600. Compared with SLA, it is cheaper, and there are many kinds of handbooks. At present, it is widely used in China. The main materials are ABS, PC, PMMA, and the metals are mainly aluminum and copper. CNC processing can process product samples with relatively high accuracy. The application materials mainly include ABS, PC, PMMA, PP, aluminum, copper, etc. The bakelite and aluminum alloy are commonly used in the production of fixture and other products; Advantages of CNC: good toughness, high tension, low cost, and wide material selection.

2. Duplicated mold (vacuum pouring): use the original template to make a silica gel mold under vacuum, and use PU materials for pouring under vacuum, so as to clone the same copy as the original, which is more resistant to high temperature and has better strength and hardness than the original template. If the customer requires several sets or dozens of sets, this method is suitable, which greatly reduces the cost. The product sample produced by vacuum copying has a certain rate of shrinkage, and the cost of vacuum copying product sample is generally lower than that of CNC, that is, the price of CNC processing multiple sets of samples is lower than that of vacuum copying after CNC processing one set (unless there are special requirements for the sample material produced by copying); Duplex materials include: ordinary PU: brittle and ductile; Transparent PU: raw materials are better, but the price is the most expensive; Rubber like PU; 8400 soft glue. The technology of vacuum duplicating can be used for two purposes:

A) Conduct small batch production of product samples;

B) Change the material; The sample plate carved with gypsum putty can be changed to PU or POLY materials that are easy to be processed later through copying, or ABS materials can be changed to materials with special requirements (such as those requiring transparency, high temperature resistance, high strength, or rubber characteristics).

3. SLA laser forming: (mostly used abroad) It is formed by gradual scanning, superimposing and curing of ultraviolet light under the control of computer according to the program prepared in advance. It is closest to the design drawing file, with high precision and fast room speed. SLA saves labor and is easy to program, but the machine is expensive, the cost is high, and the materials are not brittle and tough enough. The efficiency of one SLA is equivalent to that of three CNCs. SLA has more advantages than CNC in making small items. Large pieces are on the contrary. SLA uses Magic (programming software). There is a dehumidifier in the room where the SLA machine is placed to control the indoor temperature. SLA can process workpieces with complex structures or precision points. SLA has high precision and speed. The error can be controlled within ± 0.05mm.

4. Surface treatment: after years of accumulation, we have developed a very rich and comprehensive process for the treatment of hand boards, including manual treatment, painting (bright, matt, metal paint, rubber paint, pearlescent paint, etc.), silk screen, sand blasting, polishing, electroplating (vacuum plating, water plating), bronzing, etc.

Manual processing: polish and assemble the samples to form a finished product.

Spray paint: according to the requirements of customers, our company is a dust-free spray room, and the oil is also the best.

Silk screen: printing words or patterns on the prototype.

Pad printing: Printing words or patterns on the uneven surface of the hand board.

Lei engrave: For light transmission, two layers of paint will be sprayed on a transparent piece, one layer will be knocked off, and one layer will be exposed.

Plating.

Features of water plating: it is not easy to scratch, fade and shine, and the required materials are resistant to high temperature. Vacuum plating is very bright and easy to scratch and fade.

Oxidation (anodizing): It is used to oxidize the aluminum surface and form a film, which is not easy to scratch and corrode.

Wire drawing: pull out fine lines on the surface of aluminum, with better texture.

High light effect: use high-speed CNC to process a circle on the sample to reveal the true color of aluminum.

Stamping: Paste the product color of gold or silver on some details of the product. (This process is rarely used now)

UV: spray a layer of transparent oil on the surface of the sample, and bake it with ultraviolet light, so that the product is brighter and not easy to scratch.

Carved mud: For toy dolls, the appearance is not regular and cannot be processed by machines, so they are carved by hand with a piece of clay.

Relief: Lay a layer of putty on a board, and then carve the desired shape. It looks very three-dimensional, just like a real object.

Lathe: Machining small parts.