Functional Prototype & Working Prototype
Create a functional prototype to thoroughly test the form, fit, and function of your part, ensuring the validation and refinement of your design.
Test The Functionality Of Parts In Real-World Environments
Functional prototype is a fundamental working model used to validate and improve product designs. It plays a vital role in the assembly, testing, piloting, and market research process, assessing various aspects such as design, materials, strength, tolerances, assembly, work mechanisms, and manufacturability. Constructed using prototyping techniques and engineering-grade materials, functional prototypes serve as substitutes for finished products, facilitating examination and testing of form, fitness, and functionality in extreme working conditions to enhance design enhancements.
Functional Prototype Used To Simulate The Final Product
- Create a functional prototype using production-grade materials to realistically simulate the final product’s mechanical function, chemical resistance, and thermal properties, indicating its performance before production.
- Create a working prototype for complex assemblies to check a component’s form and fitness, and ensure accuracy of pre-assembled parts.
- Produce high-precision functional prototypes to measure, compare, or check for design errors, dimensional variances, and acceptable tolerances.
- Functional optical prototyping to support engineering tests for optical development, including light transmission and refractive index.
- Add metal inserts, movable hinges, simulated over-moulding processes, and more, to functional prototype parts to mimic and verify the finished product functionality.
- Realistic functional prototypes aid the presentation of the final product’s aesthetics and functionality. It provides design scalability.
Reap The Rewards From A Functional Prototype
- Facilitate design testing, evaluation, and improvement in the product development process.
- Validate product performance to ensure quality standards.
- Identify and eliminate potential problems before investing in expensive production tooling.
- Ensure manufacturing feasibility and timely product delivery.
- Share ideas with stakeholders on time to showcase product value to customers and potential investors.
- Patent inventions to protect intellectual property
With All Our Power To Ensure The Success Of Your Project
At KEVO, we offer precise and detailed solutions for creating functional prototypes that enable quick, cost-effective, and low-risk product testing and evaluation. Utilizing advanced rapid prototyping technology, we bring your designs to life within a matter of days. Our team provides expert guidance on testing, assembly, functionality, and serves as a starting point for downstream manufacturing services.
By partnering with us, you can achieve comprehensive design validation through functional testing and confidently move forward with full production. Our range of functional prototype fabrication techniques includes CNC machining, vacuum re-molding, rapid aluminum molding, and more.
CNC Machining
Renowned for its exceenius Aiional precision, CNC machining stands as a leading technology in the realm of rapid prototyping. While emphasizing quick turnaround times, this method still maintains an impressive level of quality.
With swift production capabilities, CNC prototyping excels in low volume orders, delivering parts that closely resemble those produced in large-scale manufacturing. Although the cost may be higher compared to 3 D printing, the resulting surface finish and part strength often surpass expectations.
- CNC Milling — Milled prototype & production parts in plastic and metal
- CNC Turning — All types of round components
- CNC Grinding — Tight tolerance and good surface
- CNC EDM — For deep pocket & sharp conners.
Vacuum Casting
Rapid vacuum casting is a low-cost prototyping service for the production of low-cost plastic parts, particularly items like colorful display models.
Advantages of rapid vacuum casting include very low tooling costs compared to injection molding and a much lower minimum order quantity. And although vacuum cast parts are not especially durable, they come out of the mold with an excellent surface finish without post-processing.
The silicone mold used for rapid vacuum casting typically lasts around 20 shots, ideal for most prototyping scenarios.
- Rigid Plastics — Such as ABS, PC, PA simulate prototype parts
- Soft Rubber — Rubber like prototypes from Shore A 30 to 90 degrees.
- Wax — Patterns for low-vlume investment casting
Rapid Tooling in Aluminum Molds
Rapid tooling, also known as bridge or prototype tooling, swiftly utilizes CNC machining to create metal tooling for injection molding. This serves as the crucial first step towards achieving rapid injection molding.
Ideal for customers seeking 100 -2 ,000 units of injection molded parts, prototyping tooling for molding offers a cost-effective solution. For larger quantities, production-level steel tooling may be preferred.
The advantages of rapid tooling are manifold. Experience fast turnarounds and the ability to swiftly prototype and test injection molded parts that would otherwise consume months of production time. Not only is rapid tooling significantly cheaper than mass production tooling, but it also yields plastic parts of remarkable quality, closely resembling production-ready components for functional testing.
While the costs may exceed those of 3 D printing, the proximity of rapid tooling and rapid injection molding to production quality makes it an invaluable resource for functional testing.
Thank you so much! The quality is very high and the electronic fits perfectly! Also the finishing is full aligned with our requirements. Please bring my special Thanks to the team worked on the parts!