Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering Semester 2 Session 2012/2013 PROTOTYPING

CL Assignment 1 Course Code Course Title Lecturer : : : KXEX 2163 Thinking & Communication Skills Dr Rahizar Ramli

Group 4-1 Group Members : KEM 090011 KEM 100027 KEM 100038 KEM 100055

1) DANIAL BIN MOHD AHIA 2) MOHAMMAD DANISH BIN MOHAMMAD ALI 3) MUHAMMAD ISLAHUDDIN BIN ABU BAKAR 4) VISSALINI A/P SELAYAMANY

In designing new products, prototyping is one the most important step for designer. Prototypes can help designer and engineer to determine fault and enhance their model to be more economic and efficient. Prototype was mean to replicate the design, working principles, electronic, electric and various specification of the actual product. This can helps the engineer and designer gather valuable data. For example in car manufacturing, designer and engineer usually create a moving and drive-able prototype to be driven on the test track. Besides that, it will also help the designer to alter the look and aesthetic to suit the personality that they are trying to show.

But traditional physical prototyping are costly and take a lot of resources. This is due to investment made to produce physical entity of the product which is still unproven working. It can be a huge risk for the company. As we can see what happened to Aptera electronic vehicle. A large sum of resources are being poured into the R&D departments which causing the company to collapse. The vehicle development had to shut down without even making a market debut. Despite the risk and the cost some company still rely on physical prototyping such as rapid prototyping. In some engineering field rapid prototyping is still being used widely. Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. This is due to the simplicity of its design. Household item, plastics and things like food container, physical prototyping can still be considered cheap and efficient. It is also easily implemented. Tools are easy to get and medium or material used can be altered. In term of implementation, rapid prototyping is considered fast and easy due to the facts it doesnt need to setup the equipment. This fast and rapid product which can be held and evaluate quickly can be a plus point for some engineer and designer for choosing this method.

While many company still has a need to be translated in physical form but many had already switch to virtual prototyping. In our global economic scenario, company try to minimize their spending and maximize their income. Thus, company starts to invest large sum of money into the idea of fully virtual

prototype. In recent years, Jaguar and Land Rover starts to develop the most advanced facility of its kind in the world, Jaguar and Land Rover's four-walled "cave'" draws on projection power equivalent to eight hi-tech cinemas and will provide a virtual reality environment simulating vehicle exteriors and interiors and capable of making bodywork appear transparent. A recent model development saw Jaguar building 93% fewer physical prototypes than the previous model programme meaning significant savings in resources, waste, power and fuel. These efficiencies have contributed to a reduction in material costs for the Whitley Prototype Stores of almost 50% between 2002 and 2003. But, the main question is, can we rely on simulation and virtual data only, and how far can we push this systems?

Virtual prototyping involving software and computational method develop mainly for purpose to replicating action done by the product. It also purposely built or develops to see the quality and wear and tear under certain condition. Possibilities for virtual prototyping seem infinite. The usage of virtual prototyping in aeronautic field show how widely it had been accepted as tools for designing future aeroplane. For example Airbus A380, was design using CATIA 5. The component was design and virtually tested using electronic computational program. For today it become an example of success in history of aeronautic. This shows how virtual prototyping have become significant in engineering.

Studies have shown that 80% of a product's manufacturing costs are locked into the approved design, which is why the ability to perform quick and inexpensive design iterations prior to releasing the design has become a critical competitive advantage. Design analysis makes it possible to perform design iterations quickly and inexpensively on computer models instead of on costly physical prototypes. Even if prototyping costs were not important considerations, design analysis provides significant product quality benefits, enabling engineers to detect design problems far sooner than a prototype could be built. Virtual prototype also facilitates studies of more than one design option and aids in developing optimized designs. Quick and inexpensive analysis

often reveals non-intuitive solutions and benefits engineers by providing them with a better understanding of product characteristics. It also provides extensive study in term of large number of scenario can be tested. Something like moon rover, testing and possibilities that may occur on moon cant be replicate on earth. Using virtual scenario created using software engineer can see how the product will respond on such condition. This help engineer have more understanding on what will happened in most extreme condition.

References http://www.forbes.com/sites/uciliawang/2011/12/02/electric-car-startupaptera-shuts-down/ http://www.jaguar.com/gl/en/about_jaguar/lifecycle/virtual_testing http://www.javelin-tech.com/main/solutions/virtual_prototyping.html http://tagrimm.com/publications/perspectives-may05.html http://www.mtadditive.com/articles/virtual-prototyping-vs-physicalprototyping