Adding Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D Printing technology to your standard product development process could save you up to $50K (USD) a year. How is this possible?
Tim Carraher, lead engineer at U.S. Architectural in California, USA, explains how his team approached new designs prior to bringing a 3D printer in house:
“With our old process of product development, we used to spend on average $50,000 USD a year with an outside service bureau printing mostly SLA parts. The average part was over $3,000 USD and we would have to wait two to three weeks or more to get it into our hands.”
At an average cost of $3,000 USD per part, the 40 projects that U.S. Architectural needed done would have totaled $120,000 USD spent in 18 months. With an installed cost of about $30,000 USD, the 3D Platform 200 Series Workbench printer added $90,000 USD to their bottom line.
Cost Savings, Faster Time-to-Market
Download the presentation from the 2017 AMUG Conference, filled with tips and process details on how to utilize FFF 3D printing to save time in your pattern shop and speed your time-to-market in the creation of moulds and casting maters.
Topics covered include:
- FFF print capabilities related to pattern making
- Nozzle size, layer height, print time, surface finish comparison
- Post processing techniques
- Use cases and specifications for both a casting and molding application
- Step-by-step casting or mold process used