Smooth Move

By Sara Ferris

FDM prototyping system was used to build this polycarbonate guitar body with ABS knobs.

RedEye RPM (Eden Prairie, MN) launched its Ready Part premium service that produces smooth, mold-quality ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) parts. Ready Part uses a patent-pending process to produce a smoother finish and watertight seal on models and parts. Parts created using the Ready Part technology can be painted or plated without sanding or further finishing. They can also serve as a master for room-temperature vulcanization molding.

“The rapid prototyping market is quickly moving toward manufacturing end-use parts,” said Greg Ackerman, director of RedEye RPM. “Because of that, we need to constantly refine processes and identify new technologies that will provide our customers with real, functional parts they can use for retail or as components of manufactured applications. The smooth surface finish Ready Part offers will help our customers use fused deposition modeling as a competitive advantage.”

RedEye RPM operates more than 80 FDM (fused deposition molding) and Polyjet prototyping systems to produce rapid prototypes and low-volume production parts. Its services are accessible online at redeyerpm.com. While you’re there, check out this account (and video) of how musically inclined RedEye staffers are using prototyping technology to build custom guitars.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.