IMPLEMENTATION OF RAPID PROTOTYPING TECHNOLOGY - A HONG-KONG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRYS PERSPECTIVE

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology for rapid computerised building of 3D physical parts. It can be defined as an automated and patternle ss process which allows solid physical parts to made directly from com puter data in a short time. RP acts as the ''manufacturing middle'' to link up the computer-aided design (CAD) process and manufacturing pro cesses. It includes the making of prototypes for design verification a nd even the making of tooling for production. With the trend towards c oncurrent engineering and the widespread use of CAD, RP has quickly be come a booming business in the past few years. This paper presents an overview of the implementation of RP technology in Hong Kong and the c ritical decision factors in implementing RP in the Hong Kong manufactu ring industry.