**6. Summary and conclusions**

*Design and Manufacturing*

tive body in progress.

components, etc.

b.**Verification of industrial design details:** Photorealistic renderings are 2D depiction, either on the screen or on printed copies. This does not allow designers to look and feel the nuanced details and curves that form the surface of the product being designed. Rapid physical models allow for making several concepts for the same details and allow for study and discussion before a decision is made. In many cases another set of rapid physical models are built after modification for further checking. This is very true in the automotive industry where the body surfaces have subtle and nuanced curves and details. Waiting for a full-scale clay model may be too late and opportunities to make several variations get lost. **Figure 16** shows a high-speed CNC machining of automo-

c.**Rapid physical models made simultaneously:** Since rapid physical models are made from a 3D data base created by industrial designers (and development engineers), it is possible to send the data across the world to any part of the world that has rapid model making facilities. This would allow for designers across the different places to inspect the model simultaneously and initiate variations that may be needed for the product due to various reasons, including cultural, environmental, statutory requirements or availability of

d.**Localised manufacture:** The speed at which 3D printing technology is developing, allows for localised manufacture of products where the quantity is low, suitable for small batch manufacture. This will be a scenario where, for instance, medical support team has to build basic equipment and furniture, and perhaps shelters. Low cost, desktop 3D powered by batteries could be a solution for fabricating them to suit the environment and the environment. This idea could be extended to future manned missions to the Moon and Mars where industrial design and development work can be done on Earth and the data sent remotely

for the mission personnel to manufacture and commission on sight.

decors/decals and fittings that do not have to take weight and load.

*High-speed CNC machining of car body (source: cnc-modelle.com).*

e.**Small quantity and customised manufacture:** This is already a practice in the fashion accessories industry where designers' custom design jewellery and accessories are produced on a small scale, finished, packaged and distributed/ sold. Spectacle frames are already being manufactured by laser sintered method in titanium as seen in **Figure 14**. This may be extended to interior

**138**

**Figure 16.**

This chapter gives a historical background to physical model making in the profession of industrial design right from the last decades of the 19th century through the foundation and development of industrial design during the 20th century till the first two decades of the 21st century. Alongside the history, the different types of physical models, together with the reasons for using each type was explained before touching on the research and development of rapid physical model making technologies, specifically high-speed CNC, laser cutting and 3D printers. Examples of how they are used has also been given in this chapter before the author moves on to discuss on how rapid physical model making is taking the profession of industrial design to its next phase of progress.

What this chapter presents is an overview of the importance of physical model making and the role it has played before moving on to how rapid physical models are setting the scene for the future of industrial design, all within the context of the other chapters in this book.

Industrial design has played a major role in the modern and postmodern era, by bringing a harmonious relationship between form, function and aesthetics in the built environment and life style over the last 100 years. With the Earth facing imminent danger to its natural sustainability, it is hoped that the profession will take advantage of the technological advances brought about by CAD, rapid physical model making and its development in sustainable materials together with high speed connectivity to influence the direction of human habitat on this planet in the near future, and perhaps other celestial bodies in the future to come.
