The model maker continues to be the best person to take a project from concept to reality, with the most effective engineers and designers being those who have good model makers on their team. Job differentiation between designers, engineers and model makers will reduce as technology and knowledge-based systems improve and cross-pollinate those specialties. In the next five years, the successful model maker will fill his/her tool kit with the latest technology, as well as traditional methods and old tricks. Their knowledge of where to get services and what new processes are available will be critical to industry.

"In order to use model making successfully, design engineers need to understand what they want to accomplish with their specific product development phase," says Peter Koenig, VP of business development at Encor Technologies, Inc. (Eau Claire, WI) - an integrated component solution company. "This is important so that they don't have undue expectations or are let down by what they receive."

The Old and the New

On the other hand, technology also is making the model a better value - more models are produced, offsetting the reduction from computer visualization and testing. Within the computer lab itself, modelers can generate toolpaths for CNC machining of the model directly from the customers' CAD data. As this technology continues to improve, less and less time will be spent at the machining center. The front-end work will all be done in the lab - taking the analysis of the part, turning it into a CAD model, and then converting it into a 3-D toolpath that can be downloaded directly into the machine.

Traditional model makers are beginning to couple new technologies with traditional model making by capitalizing on the rapid prototyping process while at the same time utilizing CNC machining. The customer gets their product quickly, but with all of the precision of the art that goes into traditional model making. CNC high-speed milling has already altered the way traditional model making is done because before the first CNC machines came online, everything was done by hand.

"Through collaboration, model makers are offering the highest value ever. The thriving shops are using the latest technology either in-house or by outsourcing," says Bruce Williams, president of Accurate Pattern and Model, Inc. (Brookfield, WI) - a rapid product company. "At our company, we are expanding our services in vacuum forming, rapid prototyping and CAD design capabilities. We have established alliances with designers, engineers and service vendors to offer a complete product development solution for the customer."

New Materials for Models

Developments such as these provide the modeler and designer with a wider spectrum of materials to choose from for different applications. Materials have given model makers creative license to stretch the limits with their designs and advanced materials have allowed for rapid turnaround of the model to the customer.

On the design side, engineers can push design limits because materials hold dimensions more accurately. These new materials enable the customer to hit details that they would not be able to obtain through higher end designing. Customers want to better understand the process they are attempting to procure and which materials they should use. At the same time, they are continuing to clamor for more functional aspects to their models and they want to be able to test their product without having to create bridge tools and molds from engineering resin. With materials being where they are today, bridge tooling will be the way to go and model making itself will increase dramatically as technology allows non-model makers to produce less expensive and higher quality models - much like how desktop publishing has increased the output of brochures and newsletters.

Lost Art?

"If it's truly a traditional model then it has been fabricated in some way or has been machined from a solid," says Tony Moran, vice president of AARK (San Diego, CA) - a product development company. "The problem we see with our designers is understanding whether the model is a prototype. It doesn't have the same properties as a production plastic part because it has not been injection molded. Although it may look and feel like a plastic production part, there are still limitations to a prototype model. With material advances we have been getting much closer to emulating production models. It's difficult to tell the difference. In the past the prototype would be rough - unless you spent thousands of dollars on hand polishing and painting to make it look like a production model. With new materials, you can make a model that one would have to look at very closely to see its ejector pins."

Surprisingly, some industry scribes say that tolerance readings in traditional model making come much closer to the mark than those on the computer. Because the modeler works directly from a 3-D CAD file, there is no real room for error. Keeping this in mind, it seems that there always will be a need for physical models, as many industry folks still grasp a real physical model best when imaging their product. Watching a trained model maker sit down, look at a print and generate in his/her mind how to construct the model, and then fabricate the model to exact dimensions is truly art.

"I believe engineers need to understand that when model makers are given a task, they present the product's best value through their work," says Williams. "A physical model will always communicate better than a computer image."