INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES
Customer uses of 3D printers in-house in Engineering, Manufacturing & Design Industries
Client:
Industry:
Material:
AM equipment:
Application:
Expert Tooling & Automation
Industrial Tooling & Automation
Onyx
Markforged CFF (Composite)
Assembly jig
Traditional fabrication:
Original cost:
3D printed cost:
Cost saving:
Time saving:
CNC Machining
£300
£10.07
96% reduction
98% reduction (3 weeks to 10 hours)
"Using 3D printing significantly reduces lead time from design to final part, minimising the need to involve internal purchasing and goods-in departments, as well as outsourced fabricators. As we design for additive manufacturing, it also allows us to produce a better fit and functioning part than required, so we save hours by not having to create 2D drawings"
Richard Gardiner, Project Manager
Bespoke Assembly Jig
Client:
Industry:
Material:
AM equipment:
Application:
Radius Systems
Industrial Tooling & Automation
Standard Resins
Formlabs Form 2 (SLA)
Functional prototype of a tapping tee
Traditional fabrication:
3D printed cost:
Cost saving:
Time saving:
Outsourced to 3rd party
£40 per prototype
93% saving
97% reduction (2-4 weeks to 24 hours)
"CREAT3D have been great to work with, simple and straightforward offering the range of printers and resins we need. The use of 3D printing in the business has increased greatly since the initial development of new fittings and re-engineering of old, the expansion of the range of resins available has allowed us to use printed components in robotic prototypes and even in sub-component installation parts where the investment in mould-tools was not justified by the quantities forecast”
Emily Whitely, Development Engineer
Functional Prototype for CFD Analysis
Client:
Industry:
Material:
AM equipment:
Application:
Team Bath Racing Electric (TBRe)
Motorsport (Electric)
Onyx with Carbon Fibre
Markforged CFF (Composite)
End-use Tripod Retainer
Traditional fabrication:
3D printed cost:
Weight saving:
Time saving:
Machined in Aluminium
£1.70
90% reduction (88g to 8.8g)
98.5% reduction (1-2 weeks to 3.5 hours)
The capability of the Mark Two means that we can give every element on the car a design consideration from the start. AM has enabled us to be risk takers, with more and better designs, but at lower risk. If the design is not right first time, the only loss is a few grams of material and a couple of hours. Without our AM equipment, minimising risk would have to be a big focus for the team. Designers would have to be certain of their designs before machining, including allowing for the long lead times for production, so the team philosophy would have to shift to more avoiding risk, which would naturally remove our competitive advantage and speed of advancement.”
Bassel Ghazali, Business Manager
Light-Weighting End Use Part
Client:
Industry:
Material:
AM equipment:
Application:
Fastlane, Integrated Design Limited
Industrial Security Systems
Onyx
Markforged CFF (Composite)
Bespoke End-use Finger Vein Housing
Traditional fabrication:
3D printed cost:
3D printing benefits:
​
Cost & time prohibitive
< £10 per unit
-
Provision of bespoke housing
-
Production with short lead time
( <12 hours)
“With over 70% of Fastlane’s end products featuring a bespoke element, this is where Additive Manufacturing plays a key role “One of reasons we use the Markforged 3D printer is to enable us to develop and manufacture elements to integrate bespoke card readers, tokens or biometric systems into the end product. This speed and adaptability to integrate is important to us because we specialise on the aesthetic of our products.”
Tony Smith, Marketing Manager