Redefining Prototyping: How to Accelerate Product Development Cycles with 3D Printing Technologies

Discover how 3D printing accelerates prototyping and product development cycles for manufacturers, enhancing efficiency and innovation.

For many companies, 3D printing has become an integral part of prototyping during product development. Why? Quite simply, no other digital manufacturing technology lets users turn 3D designs into physical parts with as little time or effort.

Prototyping with 3D printing lets engineers make test parts within a matter of hours. What’s more, it lets them do this without the need for expensive tooling and, in many cases, without the need for PPE, a dedicated laboratory environment, or even expert operators.

This article looks at how 3D printing technologies can accelerate product development cycles by streamlining the prototyping process.

The Importance of Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is a term used to describe a group of manufacturing techniques that can be used to fabricate prototypes from CAD files in a short timeframe. This form of prototyping has had a major impact on product development, replacing traditional and manual prototyping techniques like sculpting in many industries.

Some of the benefits of rapid prototyping include:

• Rapid iteration of different designs and acceleration of Time to Market

• Unsupervised fabrication of prototypes requiring minimal manual labor

• Simple refinement of existing designs using CAD software

• No expensive tooling or molds needed, so it is possible to manufacturing one-off design at no extra costs  

While rapid prototyping is sometimes used synonymously with 3D printing, it can include non-additive processes like CNC machining and injection molding (when paired with rapid tooling of low-cost aluminum molds). However, 3D printing technologies for prototypes dominate rapid prototyping due to their speed and low cost per part.

Enhancing Prototyping with 3D Printing Technologies

Prototyping with 3D printing makes sense for many engineers because it allows for rapid fabrication, a high level of design freedom, material flexibility, and low unit costs even in very small batches, since no tooling is required.

The primary advantage of 3D printing for prototyping is short lead times. Although the material deposition process is slow — printed parts typically take hours to form, rather than the seconds required for an injection molding shot — virtually no preparation is required. Molds do not have to be painstakingly fabricated, nor do workpieces have to be affixed to a machine table. The directness of the process also contributes to its low operational costs.

Another major advantage of 3D printing is its freedom from design constraints. Injection molded parts must have thin, uniform walls, while machined parts are limited by cutting tool access. 3D printing, on the other hand, depending on the technology employed allows for extreme geometrical complexity, both internally and externally.

3D printing is also suited to prototyping because some of its major limitations — namely part strength and surface imperfections — have less of an impact on prototypes than they would final parts.

Case Studies and Real-World Applications

In 2024, most high-profile 3D printing case studies involve end-use part production as 3D printing hardware providers look to promote their most advanced, revenue-generating solutions capable of producing large batches of parts.  

However, prototyping is still a highly important area of 3D printing, particularly with plastic printing technologies like material extrusion and vat photopolymerization.

In the automotive industry, Korean company Hankook — one of the world’s largest tire manufacturers — uses 3D Systems resin printers to prototype complex parts for its i-Flex non-pneumatic tire (NPT). Hankook says the “main purpose of using 3D printing is to communicate better with R&D before they build the actual mold to produce the tire.”

In the medical sphere, Massachusetts-based medical equipment company DePuy Synthes uses EOS DMLS metal 3D printers to prototype metal surgical instruments such as plate benders, extractors, surgical screws, clamps, and reduction devices. According to DePuy, the company makes about 2,000 prototype spinal instruments per year.

Challenges and Considerations

3D printing technologies for prototyping offer many advantages, but they also have limitations that prevent their effectiveness in certain situations.

Some challenges for prototyping in 3D printing include:

• Lack of fidelity between the prototype and final part, especially when the final part is made from non-additive process like injection molding or casting

• Weakness of some printed prototypes for functional testing due to anisotropy, porosity, etc.

• Limited material range with certain processes (SLS, for example)

Future Trends in 3D Printing for Prototyping

Prototyping with 3D printing will remain popular over the next decade, even as hardware suppliers focus their efforts on production-ready 3D printing systems. Developments in the 3D printing industry will mean faster machines, larger build volumes for batch printing of prototypes, and new material possibilities that will bring prototypes closer in nature and performance to final parts.

Conclusion

Whether a company opts for in-house prototyping or uses a prototyping partner to quickly realize their designs, prototyping with 3D printing is a fast, cost-effective, and flexible method for obtaining test parts.