How Companies Have Simplified Product Design: 3D Printing and Prototyping

Companies have come a long way as far as product concept design services are concerned. A lot goes into getting a product from concept to completion. If bringing the product to market is a drawn-out process, the market can become saturated before the product can sell. Alternatively, if you don’t spend enough time getting a product to market, it can get a bad reputation for being poor quality. Luckily, the product design process has gone through a revolution over the past few years. Improvements in product design through 3D printing and prototyping allow companies to save time and money. Here’s how companies have simplified product design and how you can adopt these for your business.

CAD software simplifies prototyping

Rapid prototyping is a popular way to help speed up the production process, and CAD software is an essential part of this. CAD drafting professionals can help create a 3D model that can be used for 3D printing or help manufacturers look for flaws. Many forms of software also allow the product to be analyzed for strength under specific conditions, helping to avoid critical mistakes before a physical copy is made.

If you know what sort of stress a product may be under, being able to test it to make sure it will hold up under that level of force will help. Stress testing helps ensure that you use strong enough material to save money if you’re using overspecified expensive material to make it. Suppose there’s a cheaper grade of material that can be used without sacrificing the quality of the product or perhaps even improving the functionality. In that case, it can save a lot of money over time.

Making changes was never easier

Another simplification on the road to a better, faster product also comes from CAD software. CAD allows you to make changes on the screen long before receiving a product’s physical copy. Drawing by hand, creating mockups, and other methods of illustrating what a product may look like are labor intensive and take materials and time to do, making mistakes difficult to fix.

With CAD, if you don’t care for the color or material of a product, you can make modifications in minutes using 3D rendering services, resulting in product design simplification. When you can make changes quickly and easily, the product development process has been sped up considerably across many different fields, making it one of the most significant changes to the process.

Products can be tested without a physical copy

While you will likely need a physical copy of a product to put in front of real customers, much of the testing phase can now be done digitally. By analyzing the product’s qualities, movement can also be tested. You can save time and materials by reviewing the details through digital copies. This significant evolution in product testing has simplified the process of creating products the most. Another great benefit of testing products this way is that it is better for the environment. With so much pressure to be environmentally friendly by countries, businesses, and individuals, being able to save resources can be a social benefit as well.

Use 3D printing for prototyping.

The expertise of rapid prototype design companies nowadays can be invaluable to your business. One of the delays in product design is importing prototypes. Manufacturing is commonly done overseas because it is more cost-effective. In the past, completing a prototype was a long, drawn-out process. A company must locate a manufacturer willing to do a small production run. Often this would be more than just one or two copies because a few pieces are not worth the manufacturer’s time. These would be done at a much higher price compared to smaller pieces.

The product would then have to be shipped back to the US, losing weeks or months of valuable time. If more prototypes are necessary, each one is subjected to that long shipping delay. The solution has been found in 3D printing. A 3D product modeling professional specializing in 3d printing allows you to print one or a small number of prototypes locally. 3D printing a prototype saves a lot of time, especially with complex designs that greatly benefit from repeated testing.

Test theories with real-time applications

Having ready access to a 3D-printed model means that your company is freer to experiment with product testing. While an analysis can tell you strength requirements and reveal safety issues, there are things only an actual product sample can say to you. Accurate product testing can help show if there are any ergonomic issues, if it is hard to use for some reason, or if the material used doesn’t look or feel right.

If you want your product to appeal to people and not make critical mistakes, you must review it to ensure it works as intended. For example, this may mean product testing, putting it in front of potential customers in your demographic, getting opinions, and making changes based on their suggestions. The ability to test products is often limited by the time and cost of sending the product overseas, but with 3D printing, you can get a new product printed and tested as often as needed.

Use a 3D printing company to help keep an edge

While it may be tempting to buy a 3D printer to help kick things off, hiring a 3D printing design company may be more beneficial. 3D printing companies are also often very familiar with the 3D printing world and may have ideas on how to make your product simpler or more cost-effective to print. 3D printing is a relatively new process, and better technology is regularly released. With rapidly evolving technology, you can save money by letting a 3D printing company be responsible for keeping up with developments instead of hoping your 3D printer stays current for more than a year or two.

Remote work is commonplace.

In the past, who you worked with was limited to who was available in the area. You knew your office mates and saw them every day. If a particular role was scarce, attracting people from other parts of the world meant convincing them to move to your area. Today, many critical jobs are sourced online, making it much easier to find high-quality people to help create your products. Even if a CAD designer doesn’t live in your state, they can receive your data, create a model and send it back quickly.

Outsourcing has made finding skilled employees much easier and given business owners the ability to be more selective. Remote work can also help save money and time because the employee does not have to be kept on the payroll when products are not being developed. They can be hired to do one specific task and rehired later if a new design needs to be made. Cloud-based software has made remote workers even more manageable, allowing the CAD drawing specialists and everyone involved in the product to update CAD designs or discuss changes quickly and easily. With the help of cloud-based software, each team member can update the product, share their ideas, and communicate as efficiently as possible.

The development of cloud-based software has made the product development process more efficient and has allowed product design to become faster and simpler. It is also one of the critical reasons remote work has become so much more efficient. It is possible to develop an idea for a product, send it to a CAD designer, and have the product 3D printed without ever meeting any team members. Although many still have an office location, outsourcing much of the work has become commonplace.

Conclusion

Product design has advanced in the last few decades, and adding CAD software and 3D printing has helped streamline the creation process of new products. With the use of modern techniques, products can be made faster, safer, and cheaper than ever. 3D printing and prototyping are a big part of this evolution. 3D printing allows you access to your prototype in days rather than weeks, giving you a massive jump over traditional methods. It also allows you to make unique products that might be impossible otherwise.

If you haven’t implemented these features into your development process, adding them can save time and money and improve the quality of your product. You may be surprised by how much faster you can get a product from idea to finished, and in production, all thanks to the modern advancements 3D printing and prototyping allow.

How can Cad Crowd Help?

If you need any help with your design project, we would love to connect you with the expert freelance CAD expertise you need! With over 12,000 CAD freelancers (and counting!), we’ll find the best candidate for your specific project. Get in touch for a free quote today!