In this first issue of Vol. 3, 2008, five papers from various sources are presented
As mentioned in the previous issue, the Third International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping (VRAP '07) was held at the Leiria Polytechnic Institute of Portugal from 24 to 28 September. The current issue includes three papers from the event.
In the first paper by Peter Regenfuss et al. a novel micro-sintering method to generate metal and ceramic parts of high resolution with sub-micrometer powers is presented. This paper won the Best Paper Award at VRAP '07.
In the next paper by Michael Liebschner et al. a bone-derived computer aided design (CAD) library for assembly of scaffolds in computer-aided tissue engineering is described. This is an expansion of the keynote paper that he gave at the conference, entitled ‘Computer-aided tissue engineering: A step closer to functional tissue engineering’.
Moving on to the third from VRAP '07, this time on a new method of tissue engineering, Lim et al., develop a cryogenic prototyping method for tissue engineering. In this study, a novel technique utilising rapid prototyping technology for the fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds is presented.
In Vol. 2, No 3, the special issue by Ian Gibson comprises five papers from the International Conference on Manufacturing Automation (ICMA '07). The current special issue presents the Best Student Paper in the field of virtual prototyping from ICMA '07. Bandit Suksawat outlines a prototype safety system for new on-the-job training (OJT) in an anthropocentric cell manufacturing system.
Finally, a case study by Yeong et al. reports on the development of an automatically activated safety needle using different prototyping approaches for the fabrication of functional prototypes. The approaches include rapid prototyping, computer numerical control (CNC) machining and vacuum casting. The challenges of each technique are discussed and solutions are presented. A hybrid technique involving CNC machining and vacuum casting is adopted to fabricate the prototypes.