Top Notch Design Creates Prototypes Faster and More Accurately Using Objet 3D Printing System In-House - Objet - #1

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At a Glance Company: op Notch Design AB URL: http://topnotchdesign.eu Location: Stockholm, Sweden Industry: Industrial design and product development services Challenges • Testing for products which have electronic parts and need to be water, dust and impact resistant • Keep client designs confidential • Fit, form and function testing for high-end and industrial design clientele Solution Alaris30™ 3D Printing System from Objet Geometries Results • Reduced production time for prototypes • Provides prototypes that truly reflect the final design • More satisfied clients – as their products are now designed faster and more accurately In the field of industrial and high-end product design, highly accurate fit, function and form testing is crucial. So too is the confidentiality of the design. Design agencies that can validate and verify design feasibility in-house can save their customers time and cost in the design process, and ensure design innovations stay secret. Top Notch Design, a Swedish industrial and high-end product development design shop that uses Objet Geometries’ 3D printing technology, has found that having these capabilities in-house is a valuable tool in its development arsenal. Top Notch Design delivers advanced prototypes and plastic products to clients, with a specialty in high end plastic parts. Many of the products they develop are particularly small and contain electronics, and often they are required to be water, dust and impact-resistant. For example, for ruggedized handheld devices, one of Top Notch Design’s specialties, size is always limited. The high accuracy of Objet’s Alaris30 3D Printer allows Top Notch Design to optimize and test the fitting of the PCB, sealing, mountings and more. This makes it possible for Top Notch Design to raise the bar of quality by combining industrial design and mechanical development. Aesthetic and mechanical designs are Top Notch Design’s added value in the market space. The ability to directly design a product using SolidWorks allows them to design both the aesthetic and mechanical aspects of the product in parallel, thus saving time. Within a very short period of time, a product can be designed and printed from scratch. The confidentiality of their clients’ designs is ensured by using Objet’s Alaris30, located in a closed part of their work shop. Objet 3D Printer Makes the Product Real Top Notch Design was working on a radio control for Åkerström Björbo AB, the market leader in industrial radio controls in the Nordic region, whose products are known for being well designed and meeting tough ergonomic and industrial requirements. Åkerström had approached Top Notch with a desired product which needed to be created from scratch and be presented at an important event for Åkerström. Top Notch Design had less then one month to understand the customer’s needs, brainstorm, design a product and prepare photo-realistic prototypes for the exhibition. Designing this product and creating the required prototypes required highly accurate 3D models – and they had to be produced fast in order to meet the ambitious schedule. Objet’s PolyJetTM Technology-based Alaris30 Desktop 3D Printer was the first choice for model creation to authenticate the fit, function and form of the designs in-progress. Objet prototypes were used in every step of the project, from mock-up to functional prototype. According to Johan Vestberg, Project Manager for Top Notch Design, “Ergonomics in the products we Top Notch Design Creates Prototypes Faster and More Accurately Using Objet 3D Printing System In-House “The Alaris30 allows fit testing in areas typically dominated by stereolithography” Johan Vestberg, Project Manager Case Study