TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF MANUFACTURING PROCESS FOR HIGH PRECISION CUSTOMIZED PART

Abstract

This paper presents research results on optimum manufacturing process for prototyping high precision customized products parts and, therefore, products. The results would be applied to reduce research cost for development of new personalized devices used, for example, in prosthetics of missing limbs. These devices need high precision parts and, not the least, affordable costs. In order to obtain the prototype of these devices, several types of manufacturing processes have been analysed. As conclusion of the research results, we can state that the selection of the best manufacturing process type for obtaining high precision customized parts is a big challenge for engineers as they must get the best technique which ensures high precision (on one hand) and affordable costs (materials and equipment’s, on the other hand). When the prototyped parts are components of a special product, as example, an upper limb prosthesis, high attention should be also focused on the reliability of prototyped parts. 3D printing technologies have developed and extremely evolved lately but still there are cases when their performances are limited (especially when small dimensions and tight tolerances are required for parts’ geometry). Also, considering the component costs, an adequate analysis must be done in order to select the optimal variant of the production process. The research results presented in this paper are focused on the analysis of optimal cost for prototyping customized parts of personalized devices used for the upper limb prosthesis.