MAE165 Prof. Marc Madou 24 May 2010 Report on RapidTech Practicum by Jason M. Murray Tour courtesy of Ed Tackett, RapidTech Director

Background RapidTech is an educational entity that is part of Saddleback College and partially funded by the National Science Foundation. The National Center assists businesses, educational institutions, entrepreneurs and community-based organizations develop new products and designs using innovative rapid prototyping technologies, additive manufacturing, and reverse engineering. Primary Capabilities: Product development Early Stage Concept models Reverse engineering Rapid prototyping Additive manufacturing Much of RapidTech’s lab equipment is donated by Sony

Equipment Stereolithography: SLA-250/50 A vat of liquid UV-curable resin is scanned by a laser in the same manner as a laser printer The laser draws cross sections of the part to be machined, building the part one layer at a time Computer controlled, accepts CAD drawings Build size: 10x10x10 Materials: Polypropylene (Machine 1), ABS grey plastic (Machine 2)

Equipment Stereolithography: SCS-8000 A larger version of the SCS-250/50 Build size: 24x19x12 Produces parts in clear ABS plastic Worth $700k, donated by Sony

Equipment Selective Laser Sintering: DTM Sinterstation 2000 High power laser fuses small particles of plastic to form parts Airlocked build chamber, filled with low pressure nitrogen flow Build size: 12x12 cylinder Material: Nylon 11 Rated to produce aircraft-quality parts Laser lens

Equipment Digital Light Projector: EnvisionTec Perfactory Digitally projected UV light cures photosensitive resin in a similar manner as stereolithography Build size: 3x4x73 Material: Various Build speed up to 1’’/hour Networks with computers Described as “a pain in the butt”, yet capable of doing “some really cool things” by Ed Tackett

Equipment Laser Cutter/Engraver: Pinnacle M-25 Build size: 24x18 Materials: Various Cuts from 0.01 to 42 inch/sec Up to 1000 dpi resolution Accuracy up to 0.005’’ Glass shield burnt away by student who tried to engrave flammable material

Equipment Vacuum Forming: Compact MIDI 320 Build size: 18x18 Maximum depth of 6’’ Materials: Any type of plastic Ceramic heater (right) slides over vacuum forming chamber Used by RapidTech to create models for medical facial reconstruction

Equipment Laser Scanning: NextEngine Used for modeling detailed or organic objects that are too complex to recreate accurately with CAD Measures laser time of flight to determine exact position of roughly 1 million points on the surface of the object Rotating table makes sure object is scanned from all angels

Summary RapidTech is a educational entity funded by the National Science Foundation and assists businesses, educational institutions, entrepreneurs and community-based organizations in taking advantage of additive manufacturing technology. Equipment is donated, and repair/upkeep is funded by private contributions. Future Plans RapidTech plans on moving to UC Irvine in order to expand its facilities, which are currently limited to one small building on the Saddleback campus. More Information For more information on RapidTech’s goals and capabilities, and for a full listing of available equipment, visit the website at