In the Rapid Manufacturing and Prototyping Laboratory (RMPL), we are developing new methods for rapid manufacturing. The term rapid manufacturing implies that we want to make functional components, not just models. The major goal of our work is to eliminate the pre-process engineering time and skill required to create a custom component. Therefore, the term rapid means fast and easy process planning, fixture planning and setup planning for making one, or several functional parts. A particular focus of the RMPL is on Hybrid Manufacturing, which is a combination of Additive Manufacturing (e.g. 3D printing) and Subtractive Manufacturing (e.g. CNC machining). The lab has also deployed some of its process planning algorithms into new Design for Manufacturability (DfM) software.
