Rapid prototyping technology mainly includes hot pressing, stamping, extrusion, melting, thermoforming, laser forming, electric spark forming, powder metallurgy forming and so on. Hot-pressing molding is a technology of heating raw materials to a certain temperature, and then pressing the raw materials into the required shape with pressure; Stamping forming is a technology of putting raw materials into a mold and pressing them into the required shape with impact force. Extrusion molding is a technology that raw materials are put into a mold and pressed into the required shape by extrusion force. Melt forming is a technology that heats raw materials to a certain temperature and then presses them into the required shape by pressure. Thermoforming is a technology of heating raw materials to a certain temperature and then pressing them into the required shape by pressure; Laser forming is a technology that raw materials are put into a mold and pressed into the required shape by laser. Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is a technology that puts raw materials into a mold and presses them into the required shape through EDM. Powder metallurgy forming is a technology that raw materials are put into a mold and pressed into the required shape by powder metallurgy.
The advantage of rapid prototyping technology is that raw materials can be quickly, accurately and economically molded into required parts, which can greatly improve processing efficiency and reduce processing costs. However, rapid prototyping technology also has some limitations, for example, it can not be used for complex parts or thick raw materials, and its processing accuracy is also limited.