Rapid prototype manufacturing technique：
When drawings are finished or a new product is designed, i.e. before the product is put into market, what we want to know most is the market profit of this product; or want to know whether there is any difference between the design drawings and practical product, or whether it is rational etc. In this case , we recommend that you make a rapid prototype at first.
Rapid prototypes are one or more moulds made as function moulds according to design drawings or structure drawings to check appearance or structure rationality.

Rapid prototype classification：
<1> Manual rapid prototype: It normally means early rapid prototypes which are scarcely adopted nowadays. This is because that it is mainly fabricated manually, its dimensions and appearance are difficult to meet specified requirements.
<2> Numerical controlled rapid prototype：It is mainly made by CNC machine tool, thus it is mainly classified into laser rapid forming (RP) rapid prototype and CNC rapid prototype.
RP rapid prototype virtues：It is mainly formed using stacking technique with rapid speed, thus this kind of rapid prototype is relatively rough. Products with excessive small thickness can not be fabricated using this method.
CNC rapid prototype virtues：Precise, elegant appearance, high surface quality; After surface painting and silk printing it is nearly the same as real product. It can be formed directly on plastic which can better conform to product requirements. Thus CNC rapid prototype will become the main stream in rapid prototype manufacturing industry.

According to materials used, rapid prototypes can be classified into plastic rapid prototype and metal rapid prototype:
1. Plastic rapid prototype：Its raw material is mainly ABS or other flexible plastic material, such as some newly developed products which are prevailed in the current market: functional telephone set, monitor shell, game machine etc.
2. Metal rapid prototype：Its raw material is mainly aluminum-magnesium alloy or other materials. It is mainly used for high grade rapid prototypes, such as notepad PC, CD machine, MP3，MP players etc.
3. For expensive products such as mobile phones and digital cameras, normally moulds are made at first before they are put into market, i.e. so called mobile phone mould, camera mould etc. And fabrication process of the moulds for these moulds commonly is: A. Keep the appearance based on 3 D drawing of original real mobile phone, and then simplify inside structure, yet maintain function structure required by the customer; B. Based on real mobile phone appearance, adopt the most simple techniques which can realize massive production, such as silk printing, ink painting, electroplating to simulate real phone appearance with a simulation rate higher than 80%. Because of their high cost, metal wire drawing, IMD techniques adopted on real phones are usually replaced by ordinary techniques such as gold stamping, silk screen printing, mirror surface silver etc. to decrease the cost. If the customer has no special requirements on moulds of mobile phone and digital camera moulds, ordinary materials such as mould core 718 can be adopted.
4. Necessity of rapid prototype fabrication:
A. To check product appearance design and structure design
B. To avoid risks introduced by direct mould sinking
C. To shorten the time needed for putting into market of a new product