Blog
Star Rapid’s blog aims to share our hard earned knowledge on manufacturing and product development. We hope these articles help you to optimize your product design and better understand the world of rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, 3D printing and low-volume manufacturing.
Is Aluminum Tooling Dead?
As part of our ongoing mission to improve the quality of our rapid tooling service, the team at Star Rapid has moved away from using aluminum for plastic injection mold tools and now we offer only steel such as P20, NAK80, S136 and H13 instead.We did this...
Supporting All Projects Big and Small
Scaling up from from prototyping to larger volumes seamlessly is a vital part of the product development process. To better support this process, Star Rapid has no minimum order quantity and no minimum order value requirements.At Star Rapid, we value...
Product Applications Help You Find the Plastic That’s Right for You
When developing a new product, there are so many different types of plastic available to use. Choosing the right one depends on application-specific criteria.In our experience, developers should consider if the plastic material is food safe, impact...
6 Things To Prepare When Requesting a Quote
When developing a product you need fast and accurate quotations from your supplier to get your project started and to understand the cost and lead times involved. To ensure you get an accurate quote, manufacturing suppliers will need information from you...
5 Reasons to Use CNC for Rapid Prototyping
CNC machining for rapid prototyping allows you to leverage the many advantages of computerized equipment to produce fast-turnaround prototypes, engineering models and high-quality end-use parts in the least possible time. Here are the top five reasons to...
4 Management Tools to Look for in a World-Class Supplier
How can you be sure that you've found a manufacturing partner that you can trust? How do you know they will exercise industry best practices, maintain the highest levels of professionalism and protect your confidential information?These are important...
Everything You Need to Know About CNC Milling
Countless products today, from smartphones to supersonic jets, are made possible because of the reliability and versatility of CNC milling. It's an ideal method for rapid prototyping, as well as volume manufacturing in plastic and metal. Let's take a...
Everything You Need to Know About CNC Turning Centers
Modern CNC machine turning centers have come a long way from their forebear, the humble lathe. With the advent of computer controls and multiple directions of travel, these amazing workhorses can do turning and milling operations on one fast and accurate...