GALLERY

In this project DeskProto has been used for a pure Rapid Prototyping application. A special rotating knob has been designed, to be used as a timer knob an artificial sun apparatus. The outer form of the knob clearly suggest the action to be taken to set the timing device: a nice piece of ergonomically sound design.

The design of the knob was done in Pro Engineer (tm), and before actually clearing the design for production a physical prototype was needed for final approval. So in Pro Engineer the design was turned into a true solid, and the STL file was written.

Note 1: in Pro Engineer STL is called SLA
Note 2: the true solid is needed by Pro Engineer to be able to write an STL file. DeskProto does not demand solid objects.

DeskProto window showing a rendering of the STL-file (about 5,300 triangles)

DeskProto has been used to rapidly create the prototype that was needed. The milling parameters to be set were the milling tool to be used (a ball nose cutter R 3 mm), and the accuracy (distance between the toolpaths 0.4 mm). The prototype than was milled from a massive block in about one hour, using a Roland CAMM-3 desktop milling machine.

Note that a massive (solid) prototype has been milled, which is sufficient to evaluate the outer form of the product. The material used is called 'Cibatool' (inside the USA called 'Renshape', both names tm), which is a 'wood-like' model material. It is very easy to finish a Cibatool prototype, creating a perfect glossy surface.

The actual milling of the prototype

The design of this timer knob was created by the major Dutch design bureau Well Design in Zeist (Holland). We received an STL file from their Pro-E system, the prototype has been milled in our own mechanical workshop. Our contractor in this case was a toolmaking company:
'Gereedschapsmakerij Mutsaers' in Tilburg, the Netherlands. This company afterwards also manufactured the production tools for the timer knob (injection moulding).