A practical comparison of rapid prototyping and tooling options

Many Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Rapid Tooling (RT) technologies have been developed and improved upon over a very short time. Some of these have already become almost common place in the product development industry. As more technologies are released the product developer is constantly trying to determine which process or tool is the best for each application. Some of the more popular and established technologies are compared from a practical point of view as well as a promising new tooling technique as applied to the prototyping of plastic injection molded parts. Comparison data comes from Plynetics/Prototype Express (these two companies merged 8/96) founded in 1989 dedicated exclusively to providing RP and RT services as well as from observed typical industry capabilities for plastic injection molded applications.