How are regular traditional prototyping different from rapid prototyping?

Prototyping is the process of creating a sample product model for testing in the real world environment and serving as the foundation for other processes.
Traditional prototyping involves the design, development, construction, and manufacturing of a model of our product, typically by designers and developers using pen, pencil, and paper or a CAD design software file; while Rapid Prototyping (RP) involves additively 3D printing the scale model of the part or assembly using a 3D printer and 3D additive layer manufacturing technology, without manufacturing process planning or tooling.

Prototyping is the design verification and adjustment phase of product development as it tests and demonstrates the design. We want to be able to touch and feel, test and demonstrate a product before we make it, whether in mass production or expensive material, and we want to make sure our design fits our needs and applications.
It allows us to showcase and display the new product, whether it be to our managers, to our investors, to our designers, and/or to our clients. It allows us to test our ideas and concepts to see if they can actually work in the real world, as well as test the design to see if it passes all testing requirements. We can also use a prototype to assess if and where we need to make improvements and changes if necessary.
We can build a partial prototype or we can build the actual part itself, looking and feeling like the complete product. It may or may not work, or it may only partially work for testing only parts of the design. The final version will probably look good and work correctly.

So how does a traditional “old school” prototype differ from a fast one? The traditional method of prototyping involves making mockups from different materials, such as clay, foam, wood, plastic, and metal. It may have additional materials, such as wires, tape, etc. We can create it by hand, cutting, gluing, engraving or we can manufacture it with CNC milling machines. On the other hand, rapid prototyping includes technology that creates the 3D part from the CAD file itself (without paper designs) on a computer and 3D printer, using materials such as ABS, PLA, PETT, HIPS, HDPE, PVA, resin, ceramics. , nylon, stainless steel and more.

3D printing is becoming more popular recently due to the fact that we can control the speed and precision of the parts made with it, and we can create very complex prototypes with it that we may not be able to machine. The part made with a 3D printer can be almost identical to what the final product will look like, so it gives a much better idea of ​​the “real deal.” In addition, there is much less waste material in 3D printing and it is often a one person task, thus saving money on manpower and personnel. There can be a large number of designers working on developing a single prototype, making it challenging, but most 3D printing software offers synchronization options so everyone can be on the same page.

Once we get past the prototyping phase and need to mass produce parts quickly, then the additive manufacturing process is likely to be less effective and slower (having to produce each layer at a time) than traditional manufacturing methods. of parts, such as CNC machining. with a CNC router. Also, sometimes it’s impossible to 3D-print to produce a large or large-scale part, and having to fabricate parts in sections and then glue them together can be a hassle.
However, it doesn’t matter if we are using a traditional or an additive rapid prototyping technology, a prototype serves as a tool for us to learn, experiment, visualize and improve the design and insights. This tool is especially useful in cases where the final product is very complex and may need several design changes, more specifically in industries such as medical, automotive, bioengineering, aerospace, marine, and more.