Realizing efficiency in the design & development process and considerable cutback in the development cost - Objet - #1

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At a Glance Company: MegaHouse URL: www.MegaHouse.co.jp Location: Tokyo, Japan Industry: Developer and manufacturer of high precision figures and toy foods Challenges • Due to short product life cycles, with many products requiring a high number of parts and detailed surfaces, MegaHouse needed to cut product development time and cost Solution In-house prototyping using the Eden260™ 3D Printing System Results • Significant reduction in development time • More accurate die fabrication, reducing post processing modifications • Dramatic cut in prototyping cost due to in-house fabrication MegaHouse Boosts Design & Development Efficiency with Eden260™ Tokyo-based MegaHouse develops and manufactures high-precision figures and toy foods targeted to both adults and children. Because the company serves a wide range of customers and its products often comprise many finely detailed parts and usually have short life cycles, MegaHouse works hard to streamline development. To reduce costs and speed time to market, MegaHouse has focused on improving the efficiency of its design process. It installed 3D CAD tools and attempted to cut development costs by enhancing its die fabrication process. MegaHouse subcontracted prototyping and created just one prototype for each product. Consequently, preliminary examination according to prototyping was insufficient and design defects were often found after the die was fabricated. The post-process design changes, die modifications and other steps needed to correct the problems extended development time and added extra costs – just the opposite of what MegaHouse needed. Ease of use and high precision makes Eden260™ a winne MegaHouse considered its rapid prototyping options and decided that installing an RP system onsite was the best way to reduce prototyping costs, increase access to prototypes, improve design quality and reduce development time. It selected Objet’s Eden260™ because the 3-dimensional printing system enabled molding with a high level of precision, supporting their need to verify mechanisms, and because it was easy to use, enabling MegaHouse to create molds with non-expert staff. The strength of Objet’s FullCure® materials was another advantage of the Eden260™ as it allowed MegaHouse designers to test the models without fear of damaging them. Realizing efficiency in the design and development process and considerable cutback in the development cost according to the installation of an Eden machine “The Eden speeds our development cycle because we can move immediately from drafting to modelbuilding and on to verification, with no time-lag” Haruo Oishi General Manager Development Design Department Case Study