Almost all newly developed or finished designed products require prototype models. Prototyping is the first stage to verify product feasibility. It is the most direct and effective way to identify defects, flaws and design drawbacks of products. Targeted optimizations can be carried out to fix these issues until no imperfections can be found from individual prototype samples. Even at this stage, small-batch trial production is generally required to discover hidden problems that only emerge during mass production for further improvement.

Product designs are rarely perfect at the initial stage, and some are even unworkable. If defective products go straight into mass production, all finished goods will be scrapped, causing massive waste of labor, materials and time. In contrast, prototypes are produced in small quantities with short manufacturing cycles and low resource consumption. They help designers quickly detect and revise design flaws, providing sufficient data support for product finalization and mass manufacturing.

With increasingly fierce market competition and the booming development of the industrial design industry, enterprises attach great importance to both industrial design and prototype manufacturing. Prototype models are essential to verify product development quality and practical performance. Against this backdrop, the prototyping industry has gradually separated from the industrial design workflow and evolved into an independent thriving sector. A large number of professional prototyping manufacturers have emerged, while large enterprises and industrial design studios have also set up their in-house prototyping departments.

CNC prototypes are manufactured via computer numerical control machining technology using CNC machine tools. They deliver high precision and accurately reproduce the exact dimensions shown in design drawings. With fast production speed, they help customers save much time on product development.

Vacuum casting uses an original master model to produce silicone molds under vacuum. Then materials such as PU, silicone, nylon and ABS are poured under vacuum to replicate copies identical to the master model with a reproduction accuracy of 99.8%. Compared with other prototyping processes, vacuum casting boasts outstanding advantages: no need for formal mold development, low processing cost, short lead time and high simulation fidelity, making it perfect for small-batch production. It is widely favored by high-tech industries.