5 Benefits of Complete Prototyping Services in Medical Manufacturing

When it comes to molding, the initial tooling cost can be pricey and time-consuming. Thus, companies often utilize rapid prototyping to fine-tune the design and work out any potential manufacturability issues prior to investing in the tooling that will be utilized for final production. The advantages of prototyping are extensive, and below are 5 benefits of rapid prototyping services in medical manufacturing.

It should be noted that some injection molding manufacturers focus on high volume production runs, and often do not give much attention to prototyping. That is not ProMed’s approach. The ProMed team offers cost effective solutions for rapid prototyping, and does not shy away from low volume production for medical manufacturing. Regardless of the volume, ProMed views each project as an opportunity to build a long-term relationship with a customer. Watch our short video to learn more about our complete prototyping services.

1. Optimizes Design: rapid prototyping enables the design to be optimized by early identification of design flaws or manufacturing issues. Simply put, this step ensures products can be manufactured cost-effectively and at high quality well before final production. During rapid prototyping, the team has the opportunity to address unforeseen design challenges and test product features and manufacturing methods before initiating full-scale production.
2. Enables Quick Reiterations: rapid prototyping is an iterative process that allows designers to incorporate valuable feedback from customers and end-users into the final design. This step improves the design as well as creating a higher level of customer satisfaction in the final product. With each iteration, confidence in the final design and the product’s marketability grows.
3. Ensures Quicker Speed to Market: any time saved during product development directly corresponds to faster speed to market. OEMs are often in a rush to get a new product to market so it is tempting to shorten – or even skip – the prototyping step. However, it is important to keep in mind that changes to the design become exponentially more expensive and timely to implement as the product advances through the life-cycle.

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1. Lowers Manufacturing Risk: there is some degree of risk associated with every manufacturing project and rapid prototyping lowers the risk level. Prototypes enable designers to quickly discard ideas that will not result in a successful manufacturing project – and focus on the designs that will. A thorough Design for Manufacturing process (DFM) upfront allows optimizations to be made or issues to be resolved before the changes significantly impact the project timeline and budget – reducing the project risk.
2. Reduces Cost: tooling for injection molds is often expensive to fabricate and costly to modify; thus, it is imperative to get the tool design right the first time. If the design is off even by a small margin, the product aesthetics and functionality will be altered. Rapid prototyping gets the tool design right and ensures product manufacturability. These steps result in higher quality production, less rework, and lower waste generation – leading to significantly lower costs.

ProMed Prototyping Expertise

ProMed Prototypes fills a market void by offering customers real molded parts, made from a wide variety of materials. Our team of rapid prototyping experts offers complete in-house mold design, mold build, and prototype component manufacturing. Allowing ProMed to serve its customers throughout a product’s lifecycle decreases production development time, development cost, and production piece part price due to critical manufacturing information learned through prototyping.

ProMed Prototypes offers rapid prototypes that include tool design, tool manufacturing, prototype manufacturing, cleaning, packaging, and shipment. ProMed provides customers a distinct advantage because, in the world of product development, time is money, and getting a product to market before the competition is a key to the success of the long-term business strategy. When your device is ready for full scale production, ProMed Prototypes’ manufacturing knowledge will be transferred to the New Product Development department of ProMed Molded Products for pre-production runs, validation, and ongoing production runs. We focus on prototypes for the following industries:

• Medical: Dedicated quality system, facilities and personnel support the activities necessary to develop and manufacture these drug eluting components. Working with both established and early-stage medical device and pharmaceutical companies, we develop robust manufacturing processes and platforms for the controlled release of drugs from a variety of materials. Our medical prototypes are offered in a variety of materials including LSR, HCR, and RTV.
• Aerospace and Defense: ProMed also has more than ten years of experience in serving the aerospace and defense markets. We offer rapid prototypes of nearly any geometry and material type, along with complex assembly and over-molding prototypes for the aerospace market. ProMed Prototypes has leveraged its experience to become a leader in providing precision rapid prototypes to the aerospace and defense markets, along with ProMed Molded Products taking many aerospace and defense products into full production.
• Pharmaceuticals: ProMed Pharma, offers rapid prototypes for drug eluting and drug delivery components, among other pharmaceutical, medical device, and combination products. ProMed Pharma focuses on silicone and plastic pharmaceutical prototypes but has extensive experience in final product assembly and packaging as well.