Prototype Fabrication Services

• WWW Virtual Library: Rapid Prototyping

• The Stanford Rapid Prototyping Laboratory (RPL) is an automated testbed research facility for developing processes to construct arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional structures using combinations of various target materials such as metals, ceramics and polymers. .

• The ACORN project provides an array of prototyping servies.

• Parts Now, an ACORN service, enables rapid prototyping of molds directly from CAD designs for subsequent production in a variety of metals including aluminum, stainless steel and nickel superalloys.

• U.C. Berkeley's Cybercut, also an ACORN service, provides WWW-based on-line access to a CAD tool which offers a uniquely valuable capability to do process planning and fixturing. This effort is focused on making the tools available over the WWW and verifying their effectiveness on an in-house milling machine.

• Alberta Printed Circuits offers fast (3 day) turn-around on prototype printed circuit orders.

• See also the Printed Circuit Board Industrial Links page for numerous PCB suppliers, manufacturers, and services.

• Agile Cable Production Service (ACaPS) An experimental cable harness prototyping service sponsored by SHARE and by Lockheed.

• NanoNet The NSF has established this network of nanofabrication facilities for the purpose of providing access to individuals who would otherwise not be able to experiment with advanced nanofabrication technology.

• MD* and SLA stereolithography service, from the ARPA MADE-sponsored CMU ACORN project.

• MSU Composite Design Services - available as part of the MSU Intelligent Systems Laboratory (ISL) within the NSF Composites Center under the Advanced Computing Thrust" (ACT) project.

• DTM Sinterstation® 2000 is a rapid prototyping machine that uses the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology. The SLSŪ process creates three dimensional objects, layer by layer, from powdered materials with heat generated by a CO2 laser.

• Alpha_1 - University of Utah geometric modeling software

• Geometry Center at the University of Minnesota - NSF Science and Technology Research Center dedicated to the computation and visualization of geometric structures.

• The MathWorks pages provide information on products such as MATLAB, which combines numerical problem solving and graphics. Student editions are available.

• Sandia Labs has experimental prototyping services.

• University of Texas, Mechanical Engineering Department researches rapid prototyping technologies, some of which are now offered as a commercial service.

• The University of Stuttgart, Germany, has a large Rapid Prototyping Project.

• The Document Center is a hard copy document delivery service specializing in government and industry specifications and standards.

• The GE CE-Toolkit contains simulators and rapid validation services for agile manufacturing.

• The Mems Information Clearinghouse is an ARPA-sponsored virtual library of micromechanical device technology including some university fabrication information.

• The on-line DC Gear Motor Sizing program assists in initial analysis of small DC motors for robotic design.

• UC Berkeley CD-ROM rapid printing service

• The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO) has a special lab that researches the use of virtual reality for prototyping and design. In particular, under their list of projects, check out the EBS project.

• The Yahoo "Interesting Devices Connected to the Net" has remote controlled robots and other interesting examples of how to connect devices to the WWWeb.

• Clemson University maintains pages related to rapid prototyping.