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38 The PCB Magazine • September 2014 ed bodies can be designed comfortably and equipped virtually with strip conductors and electronic components [1] . LDS prototyping Between the layout of an MID part and series production there are several prototype stages —assembly studies or, more generally, to accelerate product development. Serial produc- tion prototyping had, until now, been either ex- pensive or impossible. The two-component pro- cess, for example, requires expensive injection molding tools. Other technologies were limited to milled bodies or components produced by vacuum casting. In generative manufacturing processed parts are generated layer by layer directly from CAD data and without the use of forming tools. The most important procedures are fused deposi- tion modeling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS) and stereolithography (SLA). The range of plastics available for the different process tech- nologies is expanding. Developers can therefore obtain MID prototypes with characteristics that are already optimized for later use. The LDS prototyping presented by LPKF at the productronica 2013 was based on a special lacquer. It is used to coat the surface of a plastic body created by rapid prototyping. LDS laser- activatable additives are incorporated in the 3D LDS COMPONENTS continues figure 9: after building up a body in rapid prototyping it is painted with protopaint lds. the laser transmits the projected circuit structures and metal layers are built up using an electroless bath.