RD3 Technical Services
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Additive Manufacturing

Functional parts in nylon reinforced with carbon or glass fiber, plus engineering thermoplastics. Designed, printed, and measured in the shop. Most orders are in your hands inside a week.

Materials
& Technology

layers

Carbon Fiber Nylon

Chopped carbon fiber in a nylon matrix. Stiff, dimensionally stable, and the right default when a printed part has to carry load rather than just look like the part.

MATERIALS PA6-CF / PAHT-CF
BEST_FOR Stiffness
local_fire_department

Engineering Thermoplastics

Unfilled workhorses, chosen for the environment the part lives in. ASA for sunlight, PC for heat and impact, TPU where it needs to flex or seal.

MATERIALS PETG / ASA / ABS / PC
BEST_FOR Enclosures, fixtures
architecture

Glass Fiber Nylon

Chopped glass fiber. Less brittle than carbon and easier on the budget, for parts that need toughness more than they need maximum stiffness.

MATERIALS PA-GF / PET-GF
BEST_FOR Toughness

The Process

PHASE_01

Design Review

We go through your CAD, or draw it from scratch, checking wall thickness, orientation, and load paths before anything is printed.

PHASE_02

Material Selection

Filament matched to the part's actual job. Load, temperature, UV exposure, chemical contact, and cost all factor in.

PHASE_03

Fabrication

Printed on enclosed FDM with hardened tooling, which the abrasive reinforced filaments require.

PHASE_04

Dimensional Check

Every part measured against the drawing before it ships. ±0.2 mm on controlled features.

Rapid Prototyping

Going straight from CAD to a physical part skips tooling entirely. No mold, no fixture, no machine setup. That is what makes it practical to test three versions of a bracket in the time a machine shop would take to quote the first one. There is a real tradeoff. Printed parts are anisotropic, and layer adhesion sets the limit in the Z direction. We design around that rather than pretend it isn't there.

// Typical ranges for a first functional part. Actual timelines vary with geometry, quantity, and vendor queue.

Prototyping Timeline Comparison

Subtractive

(CNC Machining)

DESIGN_TO_PHYSICAL 1-3 Weeks

Tooling/Setup required

Formative

(Injection Molding)

DESIGN_TO_PHYSICAL 6-12 Weeks

Mold fabrication required

Additive

(3D Printing)

DESIGN_TO_PHYSICAL 2-5 Days

Direct from CAD, printed here