Product development and design inside Industry 4.0 from rapid prototyping to additive manufacturing
The paper explores importance of rapid prototyping technology, as an important part of Industry 4.0, in product development and design process. Current state of this technology is explored in detail, with special focus of places and processes where this technology plays important role inside Industry 4.0. Paper answers several questionssuch as: does this technology have its future inside Industry 4.0, is this technology integral part of Industry 4.0 or just one aspect, has the time come to call this technology rapid manufacturing (of final products) instead of rapid prototyping (of prototypes)?Industry 4.0 implies rapid prototyping of final products, not only its prototypes. Main representative of rapid prototyping technology is additive manufacturing. Today, additive manufacturing technologies do not only serve for prototyping. They are becoming increasingly used for manufacturing of final fully functional products. Product development and design process inside Industry 4.0 must be adopted to new market demands which implies fast development and design and fast manufacturing. The time from initial concept design to the final product manufacturing must be as short as possible. The paper provides answers to the above stated questions. In addition, real examples of product development and design of prototypes and real fully functional products are presented, with a special focus on products and prototypes developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.