R/C Car Parts Company Races to Production with Components Produced on an Objet 3D Printer - Objet - #1

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At a Glance Company: Nimrod Racing™ URL: www.nimrod-racing.hu Location: Budapest, Hungary Industry: Specializes in designing and manufacturing R/C vehicle components. Challenges • To evolve from making metal parts to plastic parts • To cut time to market in order to maintain competitiveness • To achieve cost effective production of very low quantities Solution The Eden250™ 3D Printing System from Objet Results • Brought prototype fabrication in-house and reduced design-to prototype time from months to just days • Reduced typical product development cycle from seven to two months • Able to produce high quality, highly accurate functional parts made of plastic • Able to cost effectively produce ultrashort- run, limited editions of parts • Dramatically reduced the cost of error Racing R/C vehicles is a popular hobby the world over, backed by a thriving industry of designers and manufacturers catering to hobbyists’ desires for great-looking and great-performing miniature vehicles. Whether for fun or competition, the operation of the R/C cars depends on a multitude of small parts that need to work reliably and smoothly under tough conditions. Budapest firm Nimrod Racing™ started off as a technical office designing parts and assemblies for a variety of uses. However, with its emphasis on following and setting new standards in cutting edge design and product innovation, the company quickly evolved into an expert designer and manufacturer of R/C car components. Initially, Nimrod Racing depended on conventional 3D milling, but as the market changed, it realized it needed to progress to 3D printing. “The ‘make everything lighter’ trend in automobile manufacturing is the same for R/C cars, so we needed to replace metal parts with plastic,” says Ádám Novák, Designing Engineer at Nimrod Racing. “Also, the parts are usually quite complex so 3D printing is faster than milling.” Objet’s unique 3D printing technology and affordable Eden250 3D printer, which produces fully cured, highly detailed and accurate models and parts made of unique photopolymer materials, proved the perfect combination for Nimrod Racing. János Márton Szász, managing engineer explains: “We believe that Polyjet technology is the best 3D printing technique. The resulting parts have superior mechanical properties so the parts can be used as parts of assemblies. There is no warping or shrinkage during the printing process, so we are able to achieve perfect dimensional stability.” The benefits that Nimrod Racing has realized as a result of working with the Eden250 printer fall into the main categories of time, creativity, and cost – which together have helped the manufacturer improve its competitive position in the fast-paced market for R/C car parts. Compressed time to market Prior to installing the Eden250 3D printer, moving new products from design to sales was a lengthy and waste-heavy process. After the design phase, the project was sent to manufacturing and then it could take six or seven months until the complete prototypes were returned. Nimrod Racing is in the exclusive modeling business and hence needed only a few of each part. However, the company would order many more pieces than needed because only a few of the prototypes would meet its exacting standards for perfection. This resulted in a huge amount of waste products – and added cost. R/C Car Parts Company Races to Production with Components Produced on an Objet 3D Printer “The Eden printing system, is the quickest and most accurate ‘expert’ in our team because of its reliability, speed and cost ” András Szász managing director, chief designer Case Study