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This paper investigates how physical prototyping modules can be designed to facilitate for interactiondesigners to visualize their ideas early on in a design process. As technology is getting cheaper andeasier to use, it has opened up the possibility for others than just engineers to build with technology.We see technology being more and more used by designers for building prototypes and testing ideas.A setback with using technology is that it is time consuming and error occurs easily. By testing a set ofthree prototypes I will investigate the problems at hand for interaction designers and come up with adesign solution to facilitate their design process. I will come to conclusion about making the modulesflexible, functional and user friendly to meet the user’s demands.

<p>Software prototyping is considered to be one of the most important tools that are used by software engineersnowadays to be able to understand the customer’s requirements, and develop software products that are efficient,reliable, and acceptable economically. Software engineers can choose any of the available prototyping approaches tobe used, based on the software that they intend to develop and how fast they would like to go during the softwaredevelopment. But generally speaking all prototyping approaches are aimed to help the engineers to understand thecustomer’s true needs, examine different software solutions and quality aspect, verification activities…etc, that mightaffect the quality of the software underdevelopment, as well as avoiding any potential development risks.A combination of several prototyping approaches, and brainstorming techniques which have fulfilled the aim of theknowledge extraction approach, have resulted in developing a prototyping approach that the engineers will use todevelop one and only one throwaway prototype to extract more knowledge than expected, in order to improve thequality of the software underdevelopment by spending more time studying it from different points of view.The knowledge extraction approach, then, was applied to the developed prototyping approach in which thedeveloped model was treated as software prototype, in order to gain more knowledge out of it. This activity hasresulted in several points of view, and improvements that were implemented to the developed model and as a resultAgile Prototyping AP, was developed. AP integrated more development approaches to the first developedprototyping model, such as: agile, documentation, software configuration management, and fractional factorialdesign, in which the main aim of developing one, and only one prototype, to help the engineers gaining moreknowledge, and reducing effort, time, and cost of development was accomplished but still developing softwareproducts with satisfying quality is done by developing an evolutionary prototyping and building throwawayprototypes on top of it.</p>

Software prototyping is considered to be one of the most important tools that are used by software engineersnowadays to be able to understand the customer’s requirements, and develop software products that are efficient,reliable, and acceptable economically. Software engineers can choose any of the available prototyping approaches tobe used, based on the software that they intend to develop and how fast they would like to go during the softwaredevelopment. But generally speaking all prototyping approaches are aimed to help the engineers to understand thecustomer’s true needs, examine different software solutions and quality aspect, verification activities…etc, that mightaffect the quality of the software underdevelopment, as well as avoiding any potential development risks.A combination of several prototyping approaches, and brainstorming techniques which have fulfilled the aim of theknowledge extraction approach, have resulted in developing a prototyping approach that the engineers will use todevelop one and only one throwaway prototype to extract more knowledge than expected, in order to improve thequality of the software underdevelopment by spending more time studying it from different points of view.The knowledge extraction approach, then, was applied to the developed prototyping approach in which thedeveloped model was treated as software prototype, in order to gain more knowledge out of it. This activity hasresulted in several points of view, and improvements that were implemented to the developed model and as a resultAgile Prototyping AP, was developed. AP integrated more development approaches to the first developedprototyping model, such as: agile, documentation, software configuration management, and fractional factorialdesign, in which the main aim of developing one, and only one prototype, to help the engineers gaining moreknowledge, and reducing effort, time, and cost of development was accomplished but still developing softwareproducts with satisfying quality is done by developing an evolutionary prototyping and building throwawayprototypes on top of it.

Published Article / RP and recently RM have been key factors in the development of the manufacturing industry in assisting in the development of new products. Fortunately, the application of these technologies has been realised in the medical industry. Surgeons all over the world use physical models created from CT or MRI data using some sort of additive manufacturing. The fabrication of these models has exploded into a popular research area combining engineering, material and medical expertise. Long-term growth in the additive fabrication industry will come from designs that are difficult, time-consuming, costly, or impossible to produce using standard techniques. Growth will occur with advances in current additive processes which are coupled with breakthroughs in new materials. The applications of RP and RM are as diverse as the medical issues that arise. RM of custom design medical prostheses proves to be economically viable solution, not only because it is faster to produce but it gives the designer freedom of creation too. The paper discusses some interesting medical case studies.

Published Article / Atkinson distinguishes between four types of prototypes, categorised through its end-use: •Design or aesthetic prototypes •Geometrical prototypes •Functional prototypes •Technological prototypes Shigley and Mitchell define the design process according to the following six phases: Recognition of need Definition of problem Synthesis Analysis and optimization Evaluation Presentation The Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacture (CRPM) of the Central University of Technology, Free State was asked to assist in the development of a newly developed gynaecological cream applicator. Apart from needing a freeform fabrication system to give form fit and function to the very complex design, the product needed Rapid Tooling / Rapid Manufacturing support to enable a first batch production for medical trials and evaluation. The paper will describe the total product development process alongside prototype categories described by Atkinson and design phases defined by Shigley and Mitchell (including some iterations enabled through timeous prototyping, including various Rapid Prototyping (RP) Technologies, soft tooling and vacuum casting). More importantly, results from Rapid Tooling for limited run production (due to the complexity of the product the cycle time of the Prototype Tool is fairly long), as well as the economical impact made possible through the support of CAD / CAM and RP Technologies, will be discussed.

Published Article / At Helsinki University of Technology rapid prototyping, rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing technologies and applications have been researched since late 1980s. The Integrated Design and Manufacturing research group has concentrated on new industrial Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RP&M) applications within product development and manufacturing. This paper is based on research projects realized in 2001 - 2004 in cooperation with several industrial companies. New developments within industrial product development paradigms and processes will be discussed. The paper attempts to link current industrial management sciences research with latest developments within rapid manufacturing technologies. Product platforms, product customization and networked manufacturing have become common product development management paradigms in many industrial sectors. These paradigms have lead to an increasing number of product configurations and variations. Traditionally cost comparisons between RP&M processes and conventional manufacturing processes have been based on break even point calculations. The latest product development and manufacturing paradigms places agility in production and efficient prototyping technologies among others in an important role. Conventional cost per part comparison methods to value rapid manufacturing need to be re-engineered. In those comparisons the first break even point does not describe the overall rapid manufacturing economy. For example, effects of neccesity for product change, tool wear or tool defect have to be taken into consideration. In this paper the new cost modeling technology and some industrial case studies will be described.

Published Article / Rapid tooling (RT) in the context of this research presents the possibility of improving the traditional investment casting process by shortening lead times while still maintaining affordable costs and required quality. Various rapid prototyping processes are available that can be used to create direct metal, polymer or wooden dies for this casting technology. This paper presents results gained in an AMTS project, focusing on RT development for investment casting of light metals. One of the most widely used layer manufacturing processes available in South Africa is selective laser sintering. A machine produced by the German manufacturer EOS (process known as laser sintering) utilising this technology was selected for the study. Two of the materials that are suitable for rapid die making are used, which in tum reflects different mechanical properties and process economics. A standard benchmark part was used as a study base. Two dies were built, one in alumide and one in polyamide. A comprehensive measurement programme was conducted, followed by an appropriate statistical analysis and evaluation regarding accuracy and surface finish. A number of wax patterns were produced. The best wax patterns from each die were selected and evaluated. The subsequently produced castings in AI, Mg and TI were further examined and evaluated. Various issues concerning the reinforcement, wax injection, pattern removal, accuracy and surface finish of the dies are discussed in the paper. The research concludes that rapid tooling techniques can be successfully used for creating accurate dies in order to shorten lead times in the investment casting process chain.