US firms combine efforts to produce 3D prototype process

Merrimack, New Hampshire — Two companies that serve as suppliers to rubber manufacturers believe that high precision 3D printing can change forever the way parts are made, while saving money and improving efficiencies in the process.

Earlier this year, 3D printer manufacturer Solidscape Inc. and LS Research's Design Studio announced a partnership that company officials believe serves as a disruptive new prototype processes that will speed time to market.

By combining Solidscape's high precision printing with LSR's silicone or metal mould making process, prototypes can be created in less than two weeks, compared to the typical five to six weeks needed to create most new plastic or metal parts, said Solidscape president Fabio Esposito (pictured above).

“What we're doing is trying to push the boundaries of how parts are made,” he said. “There were several challenges we had to work through. In manufacturing environments, we feel that our printer is a critical component that provides significant value and return on investment.”

Printing at a resolution of 5,000 (x,y axis) x 8,000 (z axis) dots per inch, Merrimack-based Solidscape creates printed wax patterns that do not require hand finishing or manual work, which represents a significant time savings, Esposito said.

The end product results in material properties that are 100 percent castable. The wax patterns then can be used for lost wax investment casting and mould making applications that provide high quality surface finish, accuracy and material castability.

The result, Esposito said, is a surface for complex geometries that have been very difficult to achieve with machined parts or traditional tooling methods.

“We wanted to see if the surface finish would be smooth enough, and if the silicone mould would work with overhangs and undercuts,” Esposito said. “But we also wanted to maintain the surface finish without the need for touch-ups.”

The prototyping experts at LSR — a wireless product development company headquartered in Cedarburg, Wisconsin — can go directly to silicon tooling or to cast metal parts without the traditional, tedious hand-finishing of rapid prototype parts.

“We compressed our product development process considerably on a recent program. We've gone from weeks of machining time and $4,000 (€3,700) per set of metal parts, to under two days and $200,” Jim Hollister, 3D Lab Manager at LSR, said in a statement. “This was earth-shaking for us as well as our customer.”

According to Esposito, high precision 3D printing is “disrupting” traditional manufacturing technology in ways beyond reduced lead times. He claims a cost savings of up to 90 percent and faster design iteration. This type of printing can also create metal mould faces for injection moulding.

“There is no manual intervention as the printer is doing the design for you,” he said. “We can completely maintain the mechanical properties.”

'Smart' client

A recent client of Solidscape and LSR manufactured smartphone compatible “smart” wearable products, which, according to Esposito, is an ideal growth market for the 3D printing process. The wax patterns created from digital models were put through the foundry process, providing a direct route from digital file to finished casting. Significant cost savings were realized, and there was still an ability to make design changes without expensive tooling revisions or machining.

Company officials say many customers aren't aware of the full potential of 3D printing, and the urethane casting prototype process that Solidscape and LSR offers. The companies market it as solving the common problem manufacturers have—how best to get new products to the market in a short turnaround time—and as a solution to automate the process in a way that is simpler than other methods such as CNC machining.

Esposito said the fill process takes just two weeks to complete, compared to a seven-week turnaround time with a conventional mould method.

“When LSR has a design inquiry, there is an upfront investment for moulding and tooling that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, because often you will need to produce multiple iterations,” Esposito said. “We see a lot of increasing demand for specific applications.”

Solidscape is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratasys Inc., one of the primary makers of high precision 3D printers for direct manufacturing applications.

Among the wearable technologies and resulting industries Solidscape is targeting are jewelry, electronics, health care, dental and the defense industry, he added. The process also allows for the ability to mirror functionality and design for industries where the design element is critical.

Education, though, is a key moving forward in a couple of ways. One is educating potential customers of the benefits of 3D printing at lower costs, Esposito said. Solidscape also has worked with colleges and universities, including Arizona State University, to educate staff and students on the process.

“When you have been in design for 40 years like me, you are used to designing some type of constraint, but this process removes many of those boundaries,” Esposito said. “Now instead of designing things to manufacture, you can manufacture everything that you can design. It's a change in thinking.”