all heard the word prototype, but what

does it mean? Does it mean its coming outin a month? A year? Ever? Lets take a realitycheck by looking at the auto industry as anexample. Along with the latest models thatare typically on display at a car show, thereare usually two other kinds of cars.

One is a concept car, a car so outlandishin its design and so expensive to make thatno one would ever buy one. Often, only one sample of this car is all that will everbe made. This same concept car is takenfrom show to show just to highlight thecapabilities and futuristic vision of thedesign team of Car Company X.

But another kind of car on the show flooris also put there to draw a response from

attendees, and you can bet that a number ofteam members from Car Company Xs marketing team are on hand to record everyreactionwhether positive or negativefrom show attendees. This is a prototype of a car this company wants to bring to market. It usually has something differentabout it, from color combinations to interioramenities to under-the-hood power plantinnovations.

All the attendee-response data gatheredat various car shows where this prototype caris shown will come back to the design and manufacturing teams at Car Company X and will be instrumental in how future carsmove from concept to introduction to themarketplace as the latest-and-greatest model.

But there is a very much more detailed

Weve

PuttingYour Best

FootForward:True-LifeColoring

Make it better. Thats the current taglinefor Timberland, a footwear brandrenowned for its durability and quality.The emphasis on good craftsmanship

shouldnt come as a surprise, since thecompany was founded by an apprentice

stitcher who took great pride in what he did.Having grown into a $1.6 billion-per-year globalbusiness (The TimberlandCompany 2005 AnnualReport,www.timberland.com),Timberland now employs asizable army of fashiondesigners to continuallyrefine its products to makesure its arch support,tread patterns, materials,

heel stabilizers and orthotic devices provide thebest experience for the adventurers and mountainclimbers who rely on its shoes.

Four years ago, Timberland used to commission professional model makers to sculptout early prototypes in wood or foam based on2D CAD drawings. Each unit cost about $1,200and took about a week to produce. The relatively

high cost and the slow turnaround hindered theiterative engineeringprocess.

Eventually, however, the company discovered rapid prototyping. After spendingsix months evaluating the technologies available in themarket, Timberland bought

CaseStudy

Life in 3D

1

Achieving new efficiencies in rapid color 3D modeling

by Arnie WilliamsCadalyst Contributing Editor

prototyping story behind Car Company Xsprototype. In fact, at some point in its development history, every single part in that car began as a design idea in someones head that later was captured as2D drawings and 3D models by the designteams before moving on to manufacturing.As an interim phase between design andmanufacturing, these parts were created asphysical models, also called prototypes,made up of materials that are much lessexpensive than the actual machined parts,but that can be examined for such characteristics as form and fit.

These pre-production prototypes are studied by many members of the extendeddesign-to-manufacturing team to verifywhether the part can be manufactured at all.

But just as importantly, the team wants toknow whether the part has the look and feelthe company is after. Its not uncommon forparts to go through many iterationsthink20 or morebefore the team finalizes thedesign and sends it to manufacturing.

The veritable fly in the ointment, however,has been the high cost of prototyping.Traditionally, companies have had to spend alarge amount of their product-developmentbudget on outsourcing prototyping jobs tospecialist companies with expensive stereolithography equipment. This high-costapproach, based on laser technology, is atime-consuming process resulting in unrecoverable material waste that has had asignificant impact on the cost of bringingproducts to market. But in recent years, the

Life in 3D

Z Corp.s ZPrinter 310. The machine comes with Z Corp.s proprietary software for processing solidmodels in industry-standard STL, VRML and PLYfile formats. The bundled software supports 3Dviewing, text labeling and scaling. It runs onMicrosoft Windows NT, 2000 Professional and XPProfessional.

In 2005, Timberland upgraded its prototypingarsenal with Z Corp.s Spectrum Z510, capable ofprinting in 24-bit color at 600 dpi resolution.Now, it takes a mere 90 minutes to churn out aprototypein the colors designers had in mind.The cost is approximately $35 each.

We can now quickly do innumerable iterationsand variations, remarks Toby Ringdahl,Timberlands CAD manager for the footwear productdevelopment and engineering group, and thedesigners and marketing managers can really be

sure the product is what Timberland is expectingand what people on the street are demanding.

The high-resolution color versions reveal critical design details in the prototype, such aslugs on the sole and speed hooks on the upperpart. The tangible prototype gives Timberlandsales representatives an advantage over their competition, who are limited to a series of 2Ddrawings and rendered imagesoften withoutthe advantage of true-life coloring.

In our industry, the pressure is alwaysintense to quickly and affordably turn the marketers vision and the consumers taste intoreality that performs well, feels good and looksgreat, says Ringdahl. Z Corp. printers havedone exactly that for us, compressing our designcycles, lowering our costs, and helping us produce better products for our customers.

Z Corp.s 3D printers usestandard inkjet printingtechnology to createparts layer-by-layer bydepositing a liquidbinder onto thin layersof powder. The result istrue-life coloring thathelps designers and marketers better visualize their new products.

development of new 3D printing technologyhas signaled a more cost-efficient approachthat allows 3D models to be printed directly from CAD files to 3D inkjet-type printers that layer low-cost materials into fullymodeled 3D forms. The merging of this 3Dprinting technology with Windows-based computer-aided design represents a paradigmshift for the role prototyping will play in allproduct development disciplines to come.

Industry ChallengesPrototypingor more specifically, 3D modelingis used in many industries today,including AEC, product development, GISand even the medical industry. But a look atthe automotive and aerospace industries in

general (and MCAD in particular) revealsimportant aspects of the need for achievinggreater efficiencies in 3D modeling.

An overriding challenge in these industries is the reduction of the productdevelopment cycle. No longer can CompanyX take three to seven years to bring its newmodels to market. A vital tool helpingindustries adjust to these time constraintshas been mechanical CAD software and rapidcolor 3D modeling. The MCAD industry wasthe first to be able to create 3D solid models with the sophistication to renderaccurate prototypes, or 3D printings, directly from a CAD file. Today, every CADprogram can save models to files that canbe downloaded to 3D modeling laser cutters

These color models showthe benefits of 3D colorprinting that allow the

inclusion of productlabeling, topographicalanalysis and production

planning.

EmpoweringPower Tools:

Scale Up Sells

In 1971, astronaut David Scott, Apollo 15scommander, removed several chunks ofrock from the moon with the LunarSurface Drill, equipped with a drill head

developed by Black & Decker. Today, everyonefrom professional contractors to

amateur handymenuse power tools fromthe same company forroofing, plumbing andcarpentry, in environ-ments that are far less alien.

Black & Deckers PowerTools and Accessories Divisionhad in the past produced physical models of productsfor design analysis. They tookinto account the equipments

aesthetics and ergonomics. This division hadprovided the company with efficient rapid prototyping services for many years.

We used to use a foam-based material tomachine concept models or make them byhand, says John Reed, the companys masterprototype specialist. But once we began

working more with actual3D digital models, thetime, effort and expenseinvolved in programming

and setting up a CNCmachine to produce several iterations ofan early concept model became problematic.

Thats when Reed and his team started looking for a faster, more cost-effective and less resource-intensive

CaseStudy 2

or 3D printers to produce physical 3D models.

Whether in SolidWorks, AutodeskInventor, SolidEdge, ProEngineer or others, acertain amount of motion studies and virtual3D modeling can contribute to design efficiency, but physical 3D models are stillneeded. With the degree of sophistication 3D models from these MCAD programs now represent, accurate 3D models can be moreeasily and cost-effectively produced.

With the movement of 3D modeling intoarchitecture, physical 3D models used formassing studies, entire scaled-down modelsof building complexes, and floor-by-floorstudies of modeled interiors are bringingnew efficiencies to the AEC space. Like

automotive and aerospace, architecturaldesign firms are expected to deliver theirproducts to clients more quickly and atlower cost. 3D modeling is helping themachieve this business objective.

GIS, another benefactor of 3D modelingthrough related CAD programs, is also moving toward physical 3D modeling. Themilitary relies on GIS CAD-generated physical 3D models of terrain in hostile territories, to provide a model of the lookand feel of territory its troops may soonhave to defend. Even civil engineers areusing physical 3D models, generated from3D CAD models, as terrain studies in landdevelopment projects.

But perhaps the most surprising, and

Life in 3D

The ability to stack andnest parts within thebuild chamber allows formore efficient use ofbuild time, and teammembers dont need specialized training to run the printers.

solution: Instead of creating CNC tool pathsfor early concept models and taxing CNC programming resources, we needed somethingthe designers could use to produce their ownmodels.

Reed recalls that his employer was one ofthe pioneers to experiment with 3D printing.

As we became more active with CAD andtransitioned from hand-made to digital models,we realized that 3D printing technology represented the best solution for addressing ourgrowing conceptual modeling needs, heremarks.

Black & Decker chose Z Corp.s ZPrinter 310for its production speed, affordable initial investment and low material costs.

The ZPrinter not only had high speed, butwas also simple to operate. The machine is very

easy to set up, and the software is very straightforward. Our designers have reallyembraced the ZPrinter and are producing more concept models faster than ever before,says Reed.

One of the unanticipated benefits of rapid prototyping is the ability to scale up. By producing the tip of a new screwdriver at 10 times its dimension, the company was able to convince its retail customers of theadvantages of the new design.

Since we installed the ZPrinter, we havebeen able to reduce model production time by as much as 75 percent in some cases, Reednotes. The feedback from our designers is verypositive because this capability helps them domore design iterations in less time and furtheraccelerate product time-to-market.

newest, move to physical 3D models from 3DCAD models comes from the medical industry. The human body, especially bonestructure in limbs and even the humanheart, are now better understood throughthe examination of physical 3D modelsagain, generated directly from CAD modelsto rapid 3D modeling printers.

In both GIS and the medical industries,the use of color with 3D printers provides theopportunity to take the way prototypingmodels can be utilized to new levels. To date,only one company, Z Corp., has developed color 3D printing technology. It now leads the way in furthering this importantdevelopment across these and other disciplines.

Z Corporation and 3D PrintingAmong the most innovative companies in the rapid 3D modeling field today, Z Corp.produces inkjet 3D printers that have helped

Slicing the Tire:

FastModeling

In its informational publication TyreBasics: Passenger Care Tyres, www.conti-online.com, The ContinentalCorporation, one of the biggest tire

suppliers to the automotive industry, writes,The tyre is a complex technical component of

todays motor cars and must perform a variety offunctions. It must cushion, dampen, assure gooddirectional stability and provide long-term service.

According to the samepiece, Continental developed the first automobile tire with atread pattern in 1904.Since then, tread patternshave been continuouslydeveloped and optimizedto incorporate, for example,

ingenious tread block geometry, fine siping techniques and asymmetrical forms On wetroads at high speeds, a wedge of water can buildup between the tyre and the road surface. The tyremay then start to lose road contact or aquaplane,and the vehicle can no longer be steered Tyresmust have tread grooves or slots over their entiretread circumference and width, the literature goeson to explain.

During development, tiredesigners collect input from marketers and engineers, andthen incorporate them intothe initial tread designs. Bythe process of elimination,theyll eventually be reducedto about six pattern designs,properly represented in CAD

CaseStudy 3

Massing studies and scaled-down models ofbuilding complexes are key tools in getting clientapproval on fast-paced architectural projects.

move the design-to-manufacturing industryforward toward the kind of efficiencies themarket is demanding. Whether its tread studies by a tire manufacturer, multilayeredsoles for pro-level running shoes, physicalmodels required of an architectural project,or the modeling of the human heart, Z Corp.s method of color inkjet printing ofpowdered layers reduces the time and costof creating physical 3D models.

Its not unusual for rapid 3D modelingequipment to cost a quarter of a million dollars just for one piece of equipment, and$30,000 to $50,000 to train a specialist torun the equipment. Producing finished 3Dprintings can require weeks. By contrast,you can purchase a Z Corp. 3D printer forless than the cost to train a specialistand anyone on the team can run the printer.

The speed of inkjet printing provides up to a 10X advantage over most othermethods. Moreover, Z Corp. is also unique in

the industry in offering color 3D printings,thereby opening the way to more realisticmodels of products and the kind of 3D printing-based medical studies now makingan impact in that industry.

Speed, lower cost, versatility: These values continue to have a profound impacton the meaning of the word rapid in rapid3D modeling. Along with the power of realistic color, they comprise a crucial stepin the design-to-manufacture process. Andin the future, they will become even more crucial as industries search for more efficient ways of bringing products and services to market.

Arnie Williams is the former editor-in-chief ofCADENCE magazine and currently a contributingeditor to Cadalyst.

Life in 3D

drawings. To better handle the complex geometricpatterns, Continental developed proprietary software called TireWizard, which integrates withits 3D CAD software.

As vivid as a 3D CAD model is, it just doesnttell you as much as a physical model can aboutwhat will come off the production line, says MattLamb, a Continental tire designer. At the time,Continental used a Fused Deposition Modeling(FDM) 3D printer, which took a whopping 50 hoursor more to produce a desired prototype.

When looking for a faster machine to replaceits FDM unit, Continental found Z Corp.s ZPrinter310. With a build chamber of 8x10x8 inches and abuild speed of 2 to 4 layers per minute, theZPrinter 310 prints 10x5-inch tread samples in fivehours10 times faster than the speed of the FDMmachine. Whereas a tread sample produced in FDM

costs $200 or more, the ZPrinter 310s prototypecosts $100 in materials.

Lamb and his colleagues had to regularly dismantle, clean, reassemble and recalibrate theFDM machine because the glue-like substance itused would periodically clog the nozzle. Thankfully,the ZPrinter 310 doesnt require the same degree ofregular maintenance.

Were extremely satisfied with the ZPrinterbecause its fast, Lamb says. We spend more timedesigning and less time making prototypes and fixing machines we never expected to break. Wenow have more flexibility in the design cycle todevelop, discuss, debate and refine tread designsthat will ultimately best satisfy our customers.

Freelance technology writer Kenneth Wong is aformer editor of CADENCE magazine. E-mail himat Kennethwongsf@earthlink.net.

By examining color-coded veins in amodel heart, surgeons,medical students andmedical practitionerscan gain a better visual and physicalappreciation of theorgans delicate structure.

For more informationabout Z Corporation,

please visitwww.zcorp.com