Hi-tech pros for high-quality rapid prototyping.
We bring a quarter century of experience and expertise in rapid prototyping and short-run production and other additive manufacturing technologies to deliver projects of varying complexities that continually exceed our customers' expectations.
World-renowned brands across multiple sectors - aerospace, consumer goods, medical devices, defense, sporting goods and more trust Applied Rapid Technologies as their go-to source for rapid prototyping in the mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
Major Brands Trust ART for Rapid Prototyping
Industries Served VIEW ALL INDUSTRIES
Case Studies
-
Aerospace
GENERAL DYNAMICS
Challenge
Working with three-dimentional CAD models from General Dynamics, ART was tasked with creating 1:25 scale-models or NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Our engineers almost immediately encounted a serious complication: when shrunk to scale, certain components - including wafer-thin solar panels became too small and fragile for fabrication.
ART Solution
Improving the original CAD model prior to fabrication enabled ART to create easily-assembled sections for the final desktop models. We consolidated parts and assemblies into 26 components - enlarging and thickening specific details to ensure stability and visibility. Our expert technicians and craftsmen completed 25 scale models.
Results
The models were such a resounding success that a second order for 25 units was placed shortly thereafter.
-
Electronics
PRIVATE CUSTOMER
Challenge
An electronic housing with overmolded grips and integrated key pad. The design called for a hard urethane two-piece plastic housing with an overmolded rubber-like urethane for maximum shock absorption and superior grip. In addition, a complex, integrated keypad had to be incorporated into the overmolding. Required turn around time? Two weeks.
ART Solution
For this Maryland electronics developer, ART developed one round of stereolithography masters and silicone rubber tooling to create a small production run of urethane castings. Our years of specialized experience helped us manage the complicated process of integrating the keypad and creating streamlined, attractive and highly functional overmolding.
Results
In just ten days, ART created a limited production run of ten hand-held electronic housings, which functioned successfully in the field. A few months later, our satisfied customer returned for another ten sets of housings.
GENERAL DYNAMICS
Challenge
Working with three-dimentional CAD models from General Dynamics, ART was tasked with creating 1:25 scale-models or NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Our engineers almost immediately encounted a serious complication: when shrunk to scale, certain components - including wafer-thin solar panels became too small and fragile for fabrication.
ART Solution
Improving the orignal CAD model prior to fabrication enabled ART to create easily-assembled sections for the final desktop models. We consolidated parts and assemblines into 26 components - enlarging and thickenng specific details to ensure stability and visibility. Our expert technicians and craftsmen completed 25 scale models.
Results
The models were such a resounding success that a second order for 25 units was placed shortly thereafter.
Case Studies
-
Aerospace
GENERAL DYNAMICS
Challenge
Working with three-dimentional CAD models from General Dynamics, ART was tasked with creating 1:25 scale-models or NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Our engineers almost immediately encounted a serious complication: when shrunk to scale, certain components - including wafer-thin solar panels became too small and fragile for fabrication.
ART Solution
Improving the original CAD model prior to fabrication enabled ART to create easily-assembled sections for the final desktop models. We consolidated parts and assemblies into 26 components - enlarging and thickening specific details to ensure stability and visibility. Our expert technicians and craftsmen completed 25 scale models.
Results
The models were such a resounding success that a second order for 25 units was placed shortly thereafter.
-
Consumer Goods
PRIVATE CUSTOMER
Challenge
An electronic housing with overmolded grips and integrated key pad. The design called for a hard urethane two-piece plastic housing with an overmolded rubber-like urethane for maximum shock absorption and superior grip. In addition, a complex, integrated keypad had to be incorporated into the overmolding. Required turn around time? Two weeks.
ART Solution
For this Maryland electronics developer, ART developed one round of stereolithography masters and silicone rubber tooling to create a small production run of urethane castings. Our years of specialized experience helped us manage the complicated process of integrating the keypad and creating streamlined, attractive and highly functional overmolding.
Results
In just ten days, ART created a limited production run of ten hand-held electronic housings, which functioned successfully in the field. A few months later, our satisfied customer returned for another ten sets of housings.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USManufacturing
AFTERMARKET REPLACEMENT PARTS
CHALLENGE ART SOLUTION
In partnership with Nexa3D, ART showcased our work creating replacement parts for heavy machinery. Some of the machinery that we create replacement parts for are over three decades old and many of their parts are no longer in production.
ART Solution
To demonstrate the capabilities of the machines, we displayed some of the actual parts we created for our client at the show while simultaneously printing them. This allowed viewers to experience the speed and efficiency of our NXE400Pro 3D printer.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USRESULTS
Using our engineering expertise and our ultra-fast Nexa3D printers, we are able to reverse engineer the parts they need quickly and efficiently. Processes that could take several days with other production methods, like casting, take only an hour or two with fleet of NXE400Pro machines.
Sporting Goods
XO Heart Shield
Challenge
The nations’s largest maker of protective athletic cups wanted to expand into chest protection for young baseball players. A flawless prototype for testing and tooling verification was critically important. The process of overmolding—joining flexible and hard materials—added a layer of complexity to the task, which had to be completed in just one week.
ART Solution
Cadability, Inc. one of our design partners, provided data files from which ART produced a Stereolithography master and rubber tooling. Our experts cast a hard urethane liner and then overmolded it with a soft rubber-like urethane. The unique design of the heart shield product channels impact energy to three anchor points, away from the critical heart area, greatly reducing injury potential. For testing purposes, the XO Heart Shield was glued onto T-shirts. During actual production, the device is injection molded directly onto the T-shirt.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USResults
The single iteration of the prototype proved highly effective and successful. The one-week turnaround enabled the client to prove out the design before making an enormous financial commitment to creating the product. With a potential production run of hundreds of thousands to even millions, the XO Heart Shield chest protectors hit store shelves in the Spring of 2008.
Medical
Airbrush®
Challenge
A busy cosmetic surgery practice in New York needed a highly functional housing for its newly patented liposuction device, the Airbrush® Liposculptor. In addition to efficiently storing the existing hardware, the model had to be two colors and withstand sterilization temperatures up to 220 degrees. The Airbrush® Liposculptor also required an ergonomic design to facilitate one-handed, continuous adjustment of rate and stroke, to reduce both the surgeon's physical exertion as well as operating time.
ART Solution
ART began with 3-D CAD files from Cadability Inc. to create a prototype for form and fit testing in the field. From this design, we produced urethane models for several months of clinical trials. Tweaking the design after each trial, we developed five iterations until the client felt the device had been perfected. The final step: creating the tooling used to mass produce the device.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USResults
Initially conceived as a product for a single practice, the cosmetic surgeon and inventor was so pleased with the results that he’s now marketing and selling the Airbrush® Liposculptor to other practices. With each iteration of the device, ART prototypes saved the client nearly $40,000 in tooling costs, creating enormous value along with a superior product.
Entrepreneur
LinQ
Challenge
Entrepreneur Hampton Carver came to Applied Rapid Technologies (ART) with some scrap pieces of rubber, a mock-up, and some basic 3D CAD models for a new cell phone accessory idea. He needed assistance picking the proper production material and he needed accurate prototypes to test his designs.
ART Solution
Members from our design and production teams sat down with Mr. Carver to gather more information, look at sample materials, and discuss production options. Prototypes were built from a variety of materials and the design was iterated until the final LinQ® product emerged.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USResults
The LinQ project was a resounding success and the ART crew is very happy to see the final product on the market – we love to see projects that we work on make it through production and into consumer’s hands.
AerospaceGENERAL DYNAMICS
Challenge
Working with three-dimentional CAD models from General Dynamics, ART was tasked with creating 1:25 scale-models or NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Our engineers almost immediately encounted a serious complication: when shrunk to scale, certain components - including wafer-thin solar panels became too small and fragile for fabrication.
ART Solution
Improving the orignal CAD model prior to fabrication enabled ART to create easily-assembled sections for the final desktop models. We consolidated parts and assemblines into 26 components - enlarging and thickenng specific details to ensure stability and visibility. Our expert technicians and craftsmen completed 25 scale models.
Results
The models were such a resounding success that a second order for 25 units was placed shortly thereafter.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USConsumer GoodsPRIVATE CUSTOMER
Challenge
An electronic housing with overmolded grips and integrated key pad. The design called for a hard urethane two-piece plastic housing with an overmolded rubber-like urethane for maximum shock absorption and superior grip. In addition, a complex, integrated keypad had to be incorporated into the overmolding. Required turn around time? Two weeks.
ART Solution
For this Maryland electronics developer, ART developed one round of stereolithography masters and silicone rubber tooling to create a small production run of urethane castings. Our years of specialized experience helped us manage the complicated process of integrating the keypad and creating streamlined, attractive and highly functional overmolding.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USResults
In just ten days, ART created a limited production run of ten hand-held electronic housings, which functioned successfully in the field. A few months later, our satisfied customer returned for another ten sets of housings.
ManufacturingAFTERMARKET REPLACEMENT PARTS
CHALLENGE ART SOLUTION
In partnership with Nexa3D, ART showcased our work creating replacement parts for heavy machinery. Some of the machinery that we create replacement parts for are over three decades old and many of their parts are no longer in production.
ART Solution
To demonstrate the capabilities of the machines, we displayed some of the actual parts we created for our client at the show while simultaneously printing them. This allowed viewers to experience the speed and efficiency of our NXE400Pro 3D printer.
RESULTS
Using our engineering expertise and our ultra-fast Nexa3D printers, we are able to reverse engineer the parts they need quickly and efficiently. Processes that could take several days with other production methods, like casting, take only an hour or two with fleet of NXE400Pro machines.
Sporting GoodsXO Heart Shield
Challenge
The nations’s largest maker of protective athletic cups wanted to expand into chest protection for young baseball players. A flawless prototype for testing and tooling verification was critically important. The process of overmolding—joining flexible and hard materials—added a layer of complexity to the task, which had to be completed in just one week.
ART Solution
Cadability, Inc. one of our design partners, provided data files from which ART produced a Stereolithography master and rubber tooling. Our experts cast a hard urethane liner and then overmolded it with a soft rubber-like urethane. The unique design of the heart shield product channels impact energy to three anchor points, away from the critical heart area, greatly reducing injury potential. For testing purposes, the XO Heart Shield was glued onto T-shirts. During actual production, the device is injection molded directly onto the T-shirt.
Results
The single iteration of the prototype proved highly effective and successful. The one-week turnaround enabled the client to prove out the design before making an enormous financial commitment to creating the product. With a potential production run of hundreds of thousands to even millions, the XO Heart Shield chest protectors hit store shelves in the Spring of 2008.
MedicalAirbrush®
Challenge
A busy cosmetic surgery practice in New York needed a highly functional housing for its newly patented liposuction device, the Airbrush® Liposculptor. In addition to efficiently storing the existing hardware, the model had to be two colors and withstand sterilization temperatures up to 220 degrees. The Airbrush® Liposculptor also required an ergonomic design to facilitate one-handed, continuous adjustment of rate and stroke, to reduce both the surgeon's physical exertion as well as operating time.
ART Solution
ART began with 3-D CAD files from Cadability Inc. to create a prototype for form and fit testing in the field. From this design, we produced urethane models for several months of clinical trials. Tweaking the design after each trial, we developed five iterations until the client felt the device had been perfected. The final step: creating the tooling used to mass produce the device.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USResults
Initially conceived as a product for a single practice, the cosmetic surgeon and inventor was so pleased with the results that he’s now marketing and selling the Airbrush® Liposculptor to other practices. With each iteration of the device, ART prototypes saved the client nearly $40,000 in tooling costs, creating enormous value along with a superior product.
EntrepreneurLinQ
Challenge
Entrepreneur Hampton Carver came to Applied Rapid Technologies (ART) with some scrap pieces of rubber, a mock-up, and some basic 3D CAD models for a new cell phone accessory idea. He needed assistance picking the proper production material and he needed accurate prototypes to test his designs.
ART Solution
Members from our design and production teams sat down with Mr. Carver to gather more information, look at sample materials, and discuss production options. Prototypes were built from a variety of materials and the design was iterated until the final LinQ® product emerged.
HOW WE SERVE MANUFACTURING CONTACT USResults
The LinQ project was a resounding success and the ART crew is very happy to see the final product on the market – we love to see projects that we work on make it through production and into consumer’s hands.
YEARS
CUSTOMERS
PRODUCTS DELIVERED
SL PATTERN TURNAROUND
CAST URETHANE TURNAROUND
FROM DESIGN TO DELIVERY
ACCELERATE PRODUCTION CYCLES
ELIMINATE COSTLY TOOLING
TEST DRIVE YOUR DESIGN
1130 International Parkway Suite 127
Fredericksburg, Virginia 22406
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- P: 540.286.2266
- F: 540.286.5252
- 1130 International Parkway Suite 127
Fredericksburg, Virginia 22406
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