Why Does Product Design Need Prototype?

Generally speaking, the prototype is one or several pieces made according to the product appearance drawings or structural drawings on the premise of not opening the mold, which is used to check the appearance or structural rationality of the functional template. At this point, rapid prototypes are required for newly developed or designed products. Prototypes are the first step to verify the feasibility of products. They are the most direct and effective way to find out the defects, deficiencies and drawbacks of designed products, so as to improve the defects until the defects cannot be found out from individual prototype samples. At this point, it is usually necessary to carry out small batch trial production to find out the defects in the batch and improve them.

 

After product designed, the designed products are generally not perfect or even unusable. If there are defects in direct production, they will all be scrapped, thus will cause manpower, material resources and time greatly wasted. However, the prototypes are usually a few samples, with short production cycle and less wastage. It can quickly find out the defects in product design and then improve products, thus providing sufficient basis for product design and mass production.

 

In the process of new product development, why do we need prototype in product design?

 

At the end of the 90' s, the hand-made equipment was relatively simple. Most of them were done by hand. It was difficult to ensure the precision of the structure and appearance of the hand-made. With the development of industrial technology, the advanced equipment was updated and iterated. The demand market is also growing. As long as the end customers are inseparable from the first board model, the requirements for the production of rival boards are becoming higher and higher, and skilled technicians are also uneven. It is necessary to test the product structure and appearance technology, and how to stand out in the competition. We need to constantly improve our skills before we can improve ourselves.

 

Check the Appearance Design

The prototype is not only visible, but also touchable. It can directly reflect the designer's three-dimensional creativity in the form of real objects, avoiding the disadvantage of "good drawing but not good drawing". Therefore, the production of prototypes is essential in the process of new product development and product appearance scrutiny.

 

Inspection Structure Design

Because the prototype can be assembled, it can directly reflect the rationality of the structure and the ease of installation. It is convenient to find problems as early as possible, solve them and verify the rationality of the design.

 

Avoid the Risk of Direct Mold Opening

Because the cost of mold manufacturing is generally very high, the relatively large mold is worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. If unreasonable structure or other problems are found in the process of mold opening, the loss can be imagined. The production of prototypes can avoid such losses, reduce the risk of mold opening and save capital investment for enterprises.

 

Advance the Product Launch Time

Due to the advanced production of prototypes, you can use prototypes for product promotion before the mold is developed, and even for the preliminary sales and production preparation. CMF micro-innovation landing process has solved the pain points for customers and won the market opportunities for how to make differentiated products in the increasingly homogeneous 3C product field.