Blog
Star Rapid’s blog aims to share our hard earned knowledge on manufacturing and product development. We hope these articles help you to optimize your product design and better understand the world of rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, 3D printing and low-volume manufacturing.
4 Great Ways to Find The Right Chinese Supplier
China is a great choice for product developers searching for new manufacturing suppliers. Along with its modern infrastructure, the Chinese industrial sector enjoys high levels of government support and there are factories able to produce almost any product you can imagine. However, not all suppliers are the same. It’s essential
Is Aluminum Tooling Dead?
As part of our ongoing mission to improve the quality of our rapid tooling service, the team at Star Rapid has moved away from using aluminum for plastic injection mold tools and we now use steel such as P20, NAK80, S136 and H13 instead. We did this because we’ve found
The 7 Pillars of Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 represents the next generation of manufacturing for an inter-connected world. To empower it, several discrete technologies and processes are being brought together to form a new ecosystem that will respond independently and automatically to external conditions. This saves time, money, energy and natural resources while producing goods of
Product Applications Help You Find the Plastic That’s Right for You
When developing a new product, there are so many different types of plastic available to use. Choosing the right one depends on application-specific criteria. In our experience, developers should consider if the plastic material is food safe, impact resistant, flexible, engineering grade, fire retardant or biocompatible. The below are our
6 Things To Prepare When Requesting a Quote
When developing a product you need fast and accurate quotations from your supplier to get your project started and to understand the cost and lead times involved. To ensure you get an accurate quote, manufacturing suppliers will need information from you to make sure they produce exactly the parts you
5 Reasons to Use CNC for Rapid Prototyping
CNC machining for rapid prototyping allows you to leverage the many advantages of computerized equipment to produce fast-turnaround prototypes, engineering models and high-quality end-use parts in the least possible time. Here are the top five reasons to consider CNC machining for your next rapid prototyping project. 1. CNC Machining is
