Newsletter February 2009

In this issue:

• Digital Manufacturing: Power Tools for Small Business: Part One-Design

• SolidWorks World 2009

• RedEye Add-in is Autodesk® Inventor® 2010 Certified

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Digital Manufacturing: Power Tools for Small Business: Part One-Design

RedEye’s Digital Manufacturing Service Center

As soon as the small business commits to rolling out a new product, the clock starts ticking and the financial investments start to rise. Before realizing any profit, the company will proceed through a series of events that comprise the product development process.

Although discussed in sequential phases, the product development cycle is rarely this straightforward. Instead, there tends to be a back-and-forth quality that is evolutionary in nature.

Typical product development includes the following milestones:

1. Design

2. Test & Pilot

3. Manufacturing

With digital manufacturing, prototypes can be made during the design and testing phases for hundreds of dollars and changes can be incorporated in a few hours. Additionally, the decisions made during the test and pilot phase have an impact, sometimes dramatic, on the cost to manufacture the product.

As manufacturing nears, the levels of investment and commitment grow at an exponential rate. Because of this, many gravitate towards traditional manufacturing methods like: injection molding, extruding and blow molding. Unfortunately, these methods cost tens of thousands of dollars, and revisions may take months.

Thankfully, digital manufacturing allows the design and manufacturing processes to remain fluid as long as possible and avoiding long-term commitments until absolutely necessary.

As a product's design evolves from concept to completion, prototypes play an important role. For every product revision, a prototype is the vehicle that communicates flaws which affect form, fit and function.

When relying on conventional machining and fabrication tools, prototypes typically take one to two weeks to develop and hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to make. Short on time and money, it is tempting to skip prototyping with the assumption that the design is ready for manufacturing. However, this assumption may prove to be fatal if a flaw goes undetected.

Following discovery of a design flaw, the product is redesigned and another prototype is created. This is where the value of digital manufacturing shines when compared to traditional manufacturing methods and why it has become so important.

Typical lead times for digitally manufactured prototypes are two days versus the two weeks of machined parts. Independent of the complexity of the design—unlike conventional machining—the prototype is available with little impact on the product development schedule, and most often at much less expense. Multiplied by a number of design revisions, the savings really begin to swell. With just three iterations, for example, AF could produce the prototypes for each design in a total six days for several hundred dollars rather than six weeks (42 days) and several thousand dollars if conventional machining were used.

Essentially, digital manufacturing removes the obstacle of time and diminishes the barrier of expense to promote the frequent use of prototypes. This results in better designs with fewer unpleasant surprises when attempting to manufacture the product.

Another obstacle that digital manufacturing eliminates is the consumption of engineering time. For example, a designer can export an STL file, upload it to a service provider's Web site, receive a quote and place an order in less than fifteen minutes. When machining and fabricating prototypes, the process must be considered because some features of the design may not be reproducible and those that are may demand too much time and too much expense to make. If, for example, a part that will be manufactured with injection molding is prototyped with a CNC mill, features that cannot be machined will be removed from the design. This requires additional, and unnecessary, time from the designer to modify the CAD data, and the resulting prototype will not be accurate to that which will be manufactured.

Digital manufacturing makes the prototyping process more efficient and saves design time. Every feature, every nuance, every detail will be included in the prototype because it is insensitive to complexity. The additive nature of the process allows the original design intent to be translated to a physical object with no impact on time or cost.

Resources and efficiencies also come in to play when the prototyping process is performed. Contrary to machine shops, the digital manufacturing process requires less labor, fewer tasks and only one manufacturing process. Additionally, digital manufacturing is fully automated so that it can build parts around the clock with no machine operators. In as little as five minutes, data is prepared, the AF machine is readied, the build is launched and the technician walks away to address other duties. Orders are typically are completed in just days, independent of the order quantity, part complexity or scheduling priorities.

Prototypes, whether made by machining or digital manufacturing, will not eliminate design errors, but they will help companies to prevent those mistakes from becoming costly problems in production. So, the fundamental advantage of digital manufacturing for the small business is that it facilitates more opportunity to prototype early and often. This rapid cycle of design, review and revision drives out problems and offers greater assurance that testing and manufacturing will proceed smoothly and cost effectively.

With digital manufacturing, small companies can be responsive and adaptable to the unforeseen flaws that arise during product design.

Part Two of "Power Tools for Small Business" investigates how additive fabrication technology benefits the small business during the second phase of the product development process, test and pilot.

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SolidWorks World 2009
February 8-11, 2009
Swan & Dolphin Hotel — Orlando, FL

Customers visiting RedEye’s Exhibit at SolidWorks World 2009

Despite our uncertain economy, SolidWorks World 2009 attracted more than 4,000 attendees. Engineers attend to learn, network and explore the latest in 3D technology. Of course, were there too - to meet you and engineers like you who need access to our digital manufacturing services. It's always exciting to hear the buzz of the exhibit hall and watch "ah ha" moments as solutions are unveiled – usually confirmed by engaging smiles and reaffirming nods.

The opening remarks by Jeff Ray, SolidWorks CEO, focused on how adversity spawns invention and ingenuity. Do you remember some of the new products developed out of necessity during the depression? It was compelling to be reminded of some of the inventions, including: nylon, the car radio and Spam. Today nylon is a prevalent synthetic fiber. Can you imagine driving without music playing in your car? And then there is Spam. Not email spam. We're talking about canned meat here. Spam was invented in 1937 by Hormel. Named by a contest winner ($100 prize), and today one can of Spam is consumed every 4 seconds.

He continued by sharing some of today's inventions including micro-wind technology (windmills for residential rooftops), bone tissue regeneration, water cleansing systems and an incubator for underdeveloped countries (manufactured out of raw materials that are readily available in the area). These technologies are truly examples of brilliant engineering. Engineering that is making our lives better, easier and more manageable – sometimes even life-saving.

We are honored to spend time with folks like you who are changing our world for the better.

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RedEye Add-in is Autodesk® Inventor® 2010 Certified

The 3D mechanical design software add-in made public last August allows users of Autodesk Inventor to obtain instant price quotes for production parts and rapid prototypes right from their Inventor application.

Today we are proud to announce this add-in has received certification for Autodesk Inventor 2010. Certification is granted only after a product has been thoroughly tested by Autodesk.

Certified applications meet certain implementation guidelines and demonstrate the highest levels of robustness, quality, and interoperability with Autodesk Inventor software.

Get the RedEye Add-in for Autodesk Inventor and make it real. Right now.

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