What is a prototype for? The prototypes, mainly, help to validate the design and to capture what had been designed on paper. It is necessary to start from the base that the prototypes are not the final products. It is not necessary to make a perfect prototype, nor aesthetically striking.
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Sometimes the best is the least attractive. The important thing is that we can learn from them.
A prototype is a simulation of the final product whose main objective is to test its functionality and feasibility. In addition, prototypes provide a large amount of information about user interaction and are very helpful when it comes to discovering improvements and innovations that can make our project even better.
Thanks to them, we can touch the product, see how it works, know if it is ergonomic, and discover details that we cannot normally experience on the computer or on paper. In turn, it allows you to minimize risks and save money in the future since having to redo a prototype is not the same as having to make another mold from scratch. Therefore, it is a crucial tool to validate the idea before fully entering the manufacturing phase, where the investments are much higher.
Prototypes allow changes and improvements tailored to users.
In other words, as failures are found, the pertinent modifications must be made and tests carried out again. This process must be repeated until verifying that everything works correctly. Prototypes are a great help when it comes to testing, detecting errors (if any), and correcting them. But it not only provides the possibility of correcting errors. They also provide an opportunity to release a beta version to a set number of users. It is possible that they detect other errors that were not taken into account at first, for example, errors that have nothing to do with interactivity but with the user experience. This step is crucial since we take the idea to its target audience and who better than the buyer persona to suggest changes or new features?
In addition, the employment management system helps us work more efficiently. As they are carried out in the design process, they allow you to organize concepts and ideas, carry out tests and implement changes.
Many inventors, creative and entrepreneurs wonder if it is really necessary to have a physical prototype in order to patent the product or idea. The answer is no. It is true that in order to patent an idea as a patent or as a utility model, a descriptive report with some figures must be submitted, but to do so, a prototype is not needed. But if you already have one or several prototypes of the product, you have the advantage since you have tested how it works, and you have perfected and improved it. All this information, at the time of writing it, is very useful. However, as sometimes the idea is very complex to prototype, it is not necessary for this stage of the project.
It is also important to highlight another reason why a prototype is used is to increase the value of the Patent and Trademark Registry. When we have an idea we base ourselves on assumptions, therefore, in order for the record to have greater value, it is interesting to validate those assumptions. This is achieved thanks to functional prototypes, that is, simple models that are made to check if the mechanism we think really works. But there are inventions that are very complex, that is, very expensive to prototype. Therefore, if the investment that is available is not high, it is advisable to present the project without a prototype to the companies in order to listen to the market. If the answer is positive and a company is interested in the idea, then it is time to make a prototype because it means that the project is focused and that it is on the right track. But if the answer is negative, do not be discouraged. At that point, the project can be pivoted and modified to suit what companies want or need.
Rapid Prototyping
Anyway, prototyping is an important part of almost any industrial process. There are several types of prototyping today, one of the most well-known is what is called rapid prototyping. Rapid prototyping is a practical tool, suitable for all industries in the market. However, depending on the context in which it is going to be applied, the 3d prototyping techniques could vary in order to offer better results.
What is Rapid Prototyping?
A employment management system purpose is to quickly achieve an exact three-dimensional replica of a specific design. The purpose is that the ideas can be taken to the real context, testing them with their future clients in order to obtain feedback that allows them to address errors or optimize the product based on the needs to be satisfied. For this, 3d prototyping is based on a procedure through which certain mathematical axes created by means of CAD-CAM methods are introduced. These coordinates are processed in order to make patterns scale quickly, safely, and reliably. In short, a fundamental tool in today’s design.
Rapid Prototyping Techniques
The main technologies and techniques used in rapid prototyping can be classified into 4 broad groups:
– Stereolithography
It is a process through which photocurable resin is solidified in a liquid state, using an ultraviolet laser, in order to bring designs to reality. As a result, three-dimensional articles are obtained by adding thin layers traced by the laser, continuously printed one on top of the other. Once the three-dimensional object is completed, it is soaked in a chemical bath to eliminate the abundance of resin. Then, it is restored in a special ultraviolet light oven for a more polished finish.
– Manufacture by cutting and rolling
This 3d prototyping technique is based on the manufacture of rapid prototypes by transposing and continuously gluing sheets of paper, cardboard, wood, or plastic, cut with a laser. The procedure consists of superimposing and successively gluing the sheets of selected material cut with the laser. In this case, the latter machinery cuts the contours of the fragment in the layers in those areas that do not have material and are cut into grids in order to expedite their exclusion .