Rapid tooling

Rapid tooling denotes manufacturing on a slim timeline. Some of the main advantages to rapid tooling trades is that it lowers the time and cost of the product. However, the disadvantages are that is not as accurate and shortens the lifespan of the product. Rapid tooling is mainly used for specific needs including prototyping and troubleshooting existing problems. Rapid prototyping is not often used for large scale and long term operations for a part. Nether less, rapid tooling is starting to be used to create molds for commercial operations since the time lag is so short between start to finish and since a CAD file is the only thing needed for the design stage. [1] Since alternate methods require precious time and resources, rapid tooling provides a =way to quickly provide molds for the required products. This allows companies to quickly make commercial products with the advances of rapid prototyping.[2]