International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Parents bought me a 3D printer three years ago. Many products have already been made on it, for friends and even a teacher who came up with the idea of making a promotional school windmill. A few of our classmates got together to cooperate on this project. Our task was to follow the demanding construction process, from planning to concepts, detailing, planning and production of technical documentation. In this article, I would like to present my work and the knowledge I have acquired through a school project: from conceptualization in the SolidWorks, to the production of a prototype on an Ender 3 S1 Plus machine. The 3D printer will produce the component with two different additive thermoplastic materials, PLA and PETG. If there is any significant difference in the accuracy of manufacturing the component with different materials will be shown by measuring on the Atos Q scanner.

The aim of the work was to digitize an automotive component using reverse engineering. To apply the procedures by which an automotive component can be designed. Reverse engineering belongs in the field of innovation among the first established knowledgeintensive services. Together with the advancing development of technology and utilizing of 3D scanning, the reverse engineering is becoming an important tool for accelerating the product innovation cycles and increasing the potential of lean approach and agility of development processes in Product Design. The paper illustrates the possibilities of using and experience with these tools on examples of the scanning of the geometry of the selected automotive components.

Nowadays the field of Rapid Prototyping is rapidly changing and providing a clear overview is challenging. One of the biggest problems in this context is that different operations are often named similar. In the beginning of this paper the most important related terms are defined and classified. Afterwards the major Rapid Prototyping techniques, called generative manufacturing methods, are explained.

Alternatives to these generative methods as well as 3D-scanning methods are dealt with too. All in all these emerging technologies around 3D-printing and 3D-scanning are revolutionizing the way Rapid Prototyping laboratories look like. They offer new possibilities and reduce the complexity of prototyping. One of the future trends is so called Fab Labs which are currently stretching the boundaries of the common Rapid Prototyping laboratories. At Graz University of Technology the second Fab Lab in Austria has been established lately. Especially its implementation in University education as part of the Product Innovation Project is discussed in detail.

For companies, rapid prototyping is a powerful tool for conceptualization, form and fit review, functional analysis, and pattern generation. These applications are also relevant to the manufacturing process. The ability of the development, construction and prototype department is today, in a strong competitive field, very important for the development and existence of the company. The paper will present an example of good practice and the use of rapid prototyping technologies in very complex steel components – rear frame of the motorcycle BMW F 800 S. This article will present the use of technologies of rapid prototyping with a view to presenting a prototype to BMW customer at the stage of the decision on the selection of a supplier.