3D Printing, Rapid Prototyping, Additive Manufacturing? What is the Difference?

imageThe technology called 3D Printing is getting a lot of press lately. Articles like “3D Printing is the New Personal Computer” and “The New MakerBot Replicator Might Just Change Your World” are all over this place in the fall of 2012.  For those of us who have been printing 3D parts since the early 1990’s, this new frenzy can be a imagebit annoying. At every trade show that PADT goes to these days a large number of non-technical people come up and start telling us about 3D Printing and how it is going to “change everything.”  The next question is almost always “Is that a big 3D Printer?” as they point at a nice big FORTUS 400.  “Well, no, that is a digital manufacturing center, which is a rapid prototyping technology that uses similar technology to 3D Printing but it is much more precise, the material…” and by that point their eyes glaze over and they start playing with the model of the USS Enterprise we put out on the table to attract people.

By sorting through branding, media hype, and the confusing array of new low cost technologies, some clarity can be found and direction for those of us who use these technologies for product development. 

Additive Manufacturing

The first place to start is to recognize that we are talking about additive manufacturing technologies.  Taking a part definition and adding material through a variety of methods to make a physical part.  In almost every case, you build a part by adding thin layers of material one on top of another. The additive process differentiates this type of manufacturing from molding, forming, and machining – all of which remove or shape material.

The advantage of additive manufacturing is that you have very few constraints on the shape of your final part and there is no tooling, no programming, and very little manual interaction with the process.  This has huge advantages over the traditional manufacturing methods when it comes to speed.  Although you pay a price in strength, material selection, and surface finish, you can get parts quickly without a lot of effort.

Rapid Prototyping

Additive manufacturing took off in the late 80’s because it allowed engineers to make prototypes of their parts quickly and easily.  Rapidly.  And that is why for almost twenty years, most people who use additive manufacturing refer to it as rapid prototyping.  And to this day, most of the users of additive manufacturing use it for making prototypes as part of their product development process.  RP sounds better than AM, and better describes what you use the technology for rather than the technology. So that name took off and has stuck.

Other Names, Other Uses

As the technology got better, and especially as the materials got better, people started using additive manufacturing for other uses beyond making prototypes.  And, as is the way of companies that are trying to sell stuff, the manufacturers starting coining new names for the applications as users come up with them:

  • Rapid Patterns: making a part that will be used as a pattern in a downstream manufacturing process.  This is very common with jewelry in that the pattern is used in a lost-wax process for casting.  It is also used a lot with soft tooling, where the pattern is used to make a negative mold out of a soft rubber material.
  • Rapid Tooling: Making fixtures and molds using additive manufacturing. Tools can be used as patterns for forming, patterns for casting, or even for making molds for injection molding.
  • Direct Digital Manufacturing:  This is one of my favorite names and abbreviations – DDM.  The difference here is that the additive manufacturing process is used to make a final product, not just a prototype. 
  • Rapid Manufacturing: The same as Direct Digital Manufacturing, but without the alliteration.

3D Printing

According to Wikipedia the term 3D Printing was invented at MIT in 1995 when someone used an inkjet printing head to “print” a binder on to a bed of powder.  They used a printer to do their additive manufacturing, and used the term 3D Printing to describe it. By the way, they went on to form ZCorp, the second most popular additive manufacturing process in the world. 

Even though it started being used to refer to an inkjet printing based approach, the name spread over time. The term really caught on because it is so descriptive. Additive Manufacturing, and even Rapid Prototyping, do not make a lot of sense to non-engineers. 3D Printing makes sense immediately to pretty much anyone.

Those of us who are diehards really want 3D Printing to refer to lower cost, affordable devices that make lower end prototypes.  And if you look at how the name is applied by the manufacturers, that is generally how it was used.  Here is a screen shot of the Stratasys home page, and see how they split their systems into 3D Printers and 3D Production systems:

image

But the name is working so well that we are seeing a shift towards refereeing to additive manufacturing as printing.  3DSystems is going full bore and as of this writing, refers to their whole line as “Printers” and differentiates them by calling them “personal, professional, and production.”

image

What is Old is New Again

So it looks like the trend is towards 3D Printing becoming the new term for an old technology. And those of us who call them RP machines will have to stop doing that, or just accept that we will be met with blank stares when we do.  So next time someone comes up to tell me they just read an article in Good Housekeeping about how they will be able to make replacement parts for their dish washer in the garage with a 3D Printer, I will smile and say “That is great. In fact, we use almost all of the major 3D Printing technologies in house at PADT, and we resell the most popular 3D Printers from Stratasys, Inc.  That includes that big FORTUS 900.  It is a big and accurate 3D Printer”

Categories

Get Your Ansys Products & Support from the Engineers who Contribute to this Blog.

Technical Expertise to Enable your Addictive Manufacturing Success.

PADT Pulse Newsletter Screen Grab from March 2023

PADT’s Pulse Newsletter

Keep up to date on what is going on at PADT by subscribing to our newsletter.


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Share this post:

Upcoming Events

05/31/2023

Driving Automotive Innovation with Additive - Webinar

05/24/2023

Hill Air Force Base Tech Expo

05/24/2023

Structural Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 (3) – Structural Optimization & Ex

05/23/2023

CROSSTALK 2023: Emerging Opportunities for Advanced Manufacturing Smal

05/10/2023

Signal & Power Integrity Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

04/26/2023

Additive Manufacturing Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

04/20/2023

38th Space Symposium Arizona Space Industry

More Info

04/19/2023

38th Space Symposium
Arizona Space Industry

04/19/2023

Additive Aids for Manufacturing - Webinar

04/18/2023

38th Space Symposium
Arizona Space Industry

04/17/2023

38th Space Symposium

04/13/2023

Venture Madness 2023

04/12/2023

Fluid Meshing & GPU-Solver Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

03/29/2023

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/29/2023

Structural Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Composites, Fracture & MAPDL

03/28/2023

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/27/2023

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/26/2023

8TH Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference

03/24/2023

Arizona BioPreneur Conference | Spring 2023

03/22/2023

2023 Arizona MedTech Conference

03/22/2023

Optimize Jigs & Fixtures with Additive - Webinar

03/15/2023

3D Design Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

03/08/2023

Competitive Advantages of 1D/3D Coupled Simulation - Webinar

03/01/2023

High Frequency Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 - Webinar

02/22/2023

Additive Advantages in Aerospace - Webinar

02/15/2023

Structural Updates in Ansys 2023 R1 (1) - Webinar

02/09/2023

IME 2023: MD&M | WestPack | ATX | D&M | Plastek

02/08/2023

IME 2023 MD&M | WestPack | ATX | D&M | Plastek

02/07/2023

IME 2023 MD&M | WestPack | ATX | D&M | Plastek

01/27/2023

Arizona Photonics Days, 2023

01/26/2023

Arizona Photonics Days, 2023

01/26/2023

TIPE 3D Printing | 2023

01/26/2023

Venture Cafe Phoenix Talent Night - Job Fari

01/26/2023

VFS 2023 Autonomous/Electric VTOL Symposium

01/25/2023

Arizona Photonics Days, 2023

01/25/2023

Building A.M.- Utah: Kickoff!

01/25/2023

TIPE 3D Printing | 2023

01/25/2023

VFS 2023 Autonomous/Electric VTOL Symposium

01/24/2023

VFS 2023 Autonomous/Electric VTOL Symposium

01/24/2023

TIPE 3D Printing | 2023

01/18/2023

2023 AZ Tech Council Golf Tournament

12/21/2022

Simulation Best Practices for 5G Technology - Webinar

12/14/2022

Digital Twins Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

12/08/2022

Tech the Halls - AZ Tech Council Holiday Mixer

12/07/2022

Electric Vehicle and Other Infrastructure Update Panel

11/30/2022

SPEOS Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

11/23/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Electronics Reliability - Webinar

11/16/2022

Discovery Updates in Ansys 2022 R2

11/10/2022

VentureCafe Phoenix Panel: Venture Capital in AZ

11/08/2022

2022 GOVERNOR’S CELEBRATION OF INNOVATION AWARDS + TECH SHOWCASE

11/03/2022

VentureCafe Phoenix Panel: Angel Investment in AZ

11/02/2022

High & Low Frequency Electromagnetics Updates in Ansys 2022 R2

10/26/2022

Simulation Best Practices For Chip-Package-System Design & Development

10/20/2022

Nerdtoberfest 2022

10/19/2022

2022 Southern Arizona Tech + Business Expo

10/19/2022

LS-DYNA Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

10/17/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Clearfield Utah

10/14/2022

ASU School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks - Formal Opening Cele

10/14/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Midvale Utah

10/12/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Littleton Colorado

10/06/2022

Fluids Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

10/05/2022

Experience Stratasys Truck Tour - Colorado Springs

09/29/2022

White Hat Life Science Investor Conference - 2022

09/28/2022

2022 AZBio Awards

09/28/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Rotating Machinery Design & Development

09/21/2022

ExperienceIT NM 2022

09/21/2022

Additive Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

09/14/2022

Rocky Mountain Life Sciences Investor & Partnering Conference

09/08/2022

Ansys Optics Simulation User Group Meeting - Virtual

09/08/2022

Ansys Optics Simulation User Group Meeting

09/07/2022

SI & PI Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

08/31/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Developing Medical Devices - Webinar

08/24/2022

Mechanical Updates in Ansys 2022 R2 - Webinar

08/10/2022

Tucson after5 Tech Mixer: Ruda-Cardinal

08/05/2022

Flagstaff Tech Tour, 2022

08/02/2022

2022 CEO Leadership Retreat

08/01/2022

2022 CEO Leadership Retreat

07/27/2022

Thermal Integrity Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

07/20/2022

Simulation Best Practices for the Pharmaceutical Industry - Webinar

07/14/2022

NCMS Technology Showcase: Corpus Christi Army Depot

07/13/2022

NCMS Technology Showcase: Corpus Christi Army Depot

07/13/2022

Additive & Structural Optimization Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

07/07/2022

Arizona AADM Conference, 2022

06/29/2022

LS-DYNA Updates & Advancements in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

06/23/2022

Simulation Best Practices for Wind Turbine Design - Webinar

06/15/2022

MAPDL Updates & Advancements in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

06/01/2022

Mechanical Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - pt. 2 Webinar

05/26/2022

Modelling liquid cryogenic rocket engines in Flownex - Webinar

05/25/2022

SMR & Advanced Reactor 2022

05/25/2022

05/24/2022

SMR & Advanced Reactor 2022

05/19/2022

RAPID + tct 2022

05/19/2022

Venture Cafe Roundtable: AI & Healthcare

05/18/2022

Tucson after5 Tech Mixer: World View

05/18/2022

RAPID + tct 2022

More Info

05/18/2022

Signal & Power Integrity Updates in Ansys 2022 R1 - Webinar

05/18/2022

Simulation World 2022

05/17/2022

RAPID + tct 2022

05/11/2022

Experience Stratasys Manufacturing Virtual Event

Search in PADT site

Contact Us

Most of our customers receive their support over the phone or via email. Customers who are close by can also set up a face-to-face appointment with one of our engineers.

For most locations, simply contact us: