Design Prototyping for Manufacturability

Prototyping is one of the best ways to ensure DFM, and to bring all areas of a company involved in getting a product to market to come together and work for a common goal. Decisions made during this design stage will ultimately determine the cost of producing the product. This paper discusses the concept of concurrently designing a part, modifying it, and further evaluating the design through prototyping to ensure that the part can be efficiently and effectively manufactured. In the article, the interrelationship between Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) to design a part is examined and the ability to make modifications (at no expense to functionability) to prepare the part for manufacturability is reported.