Examples of Time and Cost Savings Using Direct Digital Manufacturing. - Stratasys - #2

manufacturing methods like milling, turning and boring. This team has documented financial advantages, including cost reductions in engineering documentation, warehousing and manufacturing. However, the most important advantages have stemmed from the design freedoms that DDM offers.

In many instances, BMW has manufactured ergonomically designed assembly aids that perform better than those that could be made with traditional methods. For example, a hand-held alignment tool made with the FDM process delivered greater worker productivity, less worker fatigue and more process repeatability. The assembly aid designer was able to manufacture a design configuration that had better balance and was 72% lighter.

For many companies, fabrication and assembly tools are ideal for first attempts at implementing DDM. These devices prove to be low-risk, high-reward applications of DDM. Fixtures also help to illustrate the possibilities that DDM offers. They can make the intangible concepts real. When people see DDM in action, they can easily grasp what it is and what it can do. This spawns creative ideas and new applications.

University of Central Florida

Shifting from the manufacturing floor of Stratasys and the assembly lines of BMW, DDM applications take to the seas with a project at the University of Central Florida. The university participated in an autonomous, underwater vehicle competition. Its entry, named Scout (figure 4), leveraged the advantages of DDM to take the "best new design" honor.

In the previous year's competition, the design team used a vacuum molded shell that wasted space and was too heavy. Also, process limitations made it impossible to include brackets and compartments in the molded part. At first, the team pursued a machined component as an alternative, but they were told by several machine shops that the geometry was so intricate that it would be impossible or prohibitively expensive to machine. This motivated them to turn to FDM so they could make the underwater vehicle's shell with DDM. The new design was vastly superior to the vacuum-molded predecessor. According to the design team, the shell reduced the total number of components, cut the vehicle's weight, and increased its strength while costing less.

NorSap

NorSap manufactures furnishings and equipment for the marine and offshore industries that are low-volume, high-value applications. The company had purchased a Fortus FDM system with the intent of using it 80% for prototypes and 20% for manufacturing (DDM). Once in operation, the company found that it used its additive fabrication technology 80% of the time for DDM of its high-value products.

An early DDM application arose when the company was manufacturing a new helmsman chair that was to be put into service in the North Sea. Like much of NorSap's product line, the helmsman chair was customized for the specific client. For this chair, the company had a brand new design and only days to deliver it. Having just completed FDM prototypes of some intricate components, NorSap realized that there was no reason why they could not be used as production parts. The rapid response allowed NorSap to deliver the chair on time.

This early DDM success was the catalyst to the Fortus machine being used primarily for production applications. Today, NorSap is running their machine around the clock, 7 days a week, and it does so with very little operator oversight. Generally, their DDM production parts are ready one day after the design is completed. According to a NorSap employee, "{DDM is} nothing short of revolutionary."

Through Stratasys, BMW, University of Central Florida and NorSap, the power of the direct digital manufacturing process can be seen. For NorSap, the advantage is lead time reduction and product customization. For the University of Central Florida, the advantage is design alternatives that were previously impossible. For BMW the advantage is new design paradigms, higher performance and cost reduction. And for Stratasys, it is all of these advantages coupled with a faster response from manufacturing engineering and freeing up its most valuable asset, its talented staff of employees.

DDM will be the next industrial revolution because it offers companies an unprecedented freedom to innovate their products, processes and businesses.

For more information about Fortus systems, materials and applications, call 888.480.3548 or visit www.fortus.com

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