You already know what it takes to be competitive in today’s market: flexibility and speed. Slow development cycles mean your competitors
get to market first, leaving you behind. Rushing to market without adequate testing increases risk. Can there be a sweet spot? Yes, the
right tools can help speed a fully-vetted product to market ahead of the competition. But traditional prototyping technology may not be
the answer. With tight timelines, it’s too costly to vet multiple iterations using CNC or outsourcing. Sometimes designers and engineers
skip prototyping completely and go straight to tooling to save on time and budget. But that means design failures get pushed to the
manufacturing stage when it’s too late to prevent costly redesigns.
Market leaders in product development and manufacturing use 3D printed prototypes. Creating accurate prototypes fast, early and often
lets you examine a design’s true potential at every stage, so you can go confidently into production. But even companies already using
3D printing for rapid prototyping face challenges making the most of this technology. If the 3D printers aren’t readily accessible to the
users, if the workflow is cumbersome and complicated or the equipment is unreliable, the benefits aren’t there. Consumer 3D printers may
seem like a beneficial rapid prototyping solution. While it’s an appealing strategy, it’s not without risk. In contrast, professional 3D printers
provide additional value, through increased capability, efficiency and reliability. From plan to prototype to new product introduction, you can
accelerate decision making and transform raw ideas into profitable products with professional, durable 3D printing.
rapid prototyping
4X faster than
traditional methods
Professional-grade 3D printing is designed to increase the efficiency and simplicity of the rapid prototyping process. It enables product
designers and engineers to move rapidly from concept to functional prototype in a fraction of the time, compared to traditional prototyping
methods. Prototypes made with formed sheet metal, CNC machining or injection molding require substantial time and cost. Mathematical
and thermal modeling gets you in the range of what is required, but can’t provide exact results. 3D printers are designed to remove the
barriers designers and engineers face by making the RP process more efficient and productive.
Fast
It’s no secret that businesses need to quickly respond to changing customer and market demands to stay competitive. That’s true
for small design firms as well as large, established manufacturers. Verifying concepts, validating designs and testing function with 3D
printed prototypes is four times faster than using traditional methods due to the speed, lower-cost materials, less material waste and less
downtime. Prevent expensive tooling redesigns and create better products faster, reducing your time to market.
Smart
Print everything from fast, low-cost concept models to durable assemblies with accuracy, quality and consistency. Trial and error done with
multiple 3D printed iterations gives you more time to confirm precise specs for a smarter design sooner. Because 3D printers can produce
models with fine feature details and the strength to withstand rigorous testing, designers can be more confident in their work.
Productive
Minimize typical pain points of traditional prototyping methods: lag time, inaccurate parts, high costs and low quality. In the race to
develop new products quickly, chances for failures increase because there is not enough time and/or resources to adequately vet and test
more than a few design iterations. 3D printing lets you produce multiple designs faster, which garner immediate feedback during critical
development stages, allowing for more space and time to take on additional projects.
Center for Advanced Design (CAD), a small
product design firm, specializes in creating
complex surface geometry for the plastics
industry. Developing a customer need into a
product requires an ability to verify concepts,
validate designs and test function quickly,
a process made more efficient with CAD’s
in-house 3D printer.
“3D printing prototypes gives us the ability to fail fast. We can produce multiple design
iterations quickly and we can change a product design overnight to meet a customer’s
deadline. The parts are accurate and the process is dependable.”
Jesse Hahne, co-owner, CAD
Simplify the design process
3D printers used in workgroup settings experience high utilization, placing significant demands on the mechanical components. Your
workgroup’s productivity will be hampered by a complex system, poor printer reliability and sub-par materials.
Hobby printers may look easy to use, but in reality users end up recalibrating the entire machine for each print job. This requires someone
with a high level of technical expertise. Professional 3D printers are designed for ease of use and shorter, streamlined workflows that give
your team the capability, repeatability and simplicity they need in a rapid prototyping platform to iterate, refine and perfect designs. Clean,
safety-certified 3D printers fit well within the office environment.
Improve part quality
3D printing with FDM® technology and engineering thermoplastics like ASA, ABS and PC-ABS provide the durability and accuracy needed
to mirror engineering specifications. This reduces the time or material once needed to redo poor-quality prototypes. Hobby-grade printers
are not designed for high use, and quickly start printing spaghetti when pushed too far, which means wasted time fixing warped parts or
an overheated head. Curl is an inherent behavior of plastic as it cools from a melted state and controlling this characteristic is essential to
maintaining part quality, particularly for long, flat parts. This is possible with uniform airflow and complex temperature control throughout the
build area of professional-grade 3D printers.
Plug and play
A small hobby-grade printer may look high tech, but it can become a major disruption in a design space. Without an enclosure, designers
are subjected to the loud noise of low-cost motors. Quiet, office friendly, plug-and-play 3D printers with automatic setup are easy to use.
Fast and quick material swaps also maximize productivity. Auto-calibration reduces troubleshooting so there’s more time for iterating.
If you’ve ever spent time converting native CAD files to STL files, you know it can be frustrating. With GrabCAD Print™, you can import
native CAD files directly, so there’s no need to waste time converting STL, files saving you 30 minutes with each design change. It’s
formatted similar to CAD software, which is familiar to designers and engineers. Simply open GrabCAD Print, drag in your file, select “Print”
and start your build. It’s that easy
Print and multi-tray management gives visibility into each print job and the ability to prioritize. There’s no need for a special technician
dedicated to printer operation and maintenance. You can manage or print jobs from anywhere, anytime.
rapid prototyping
FDM has a much broader application range. It works well in 90% of what
we do, including making prototype parts, fixtures, tooling, injection molds
and production parts. If you can imagine it and draw it in CAD, you can
build it in FDM.
Duane Byerley, Xerox
The resulting surface of the PC tool after six Kydex forming cycles (left) and a scan comparison of the tool after six cycles to the base scan at a scale of ±0.050 inch (1.27 mm) (right).
Unlimited design freedom
3D printing frees designers from design-for-manufacturability constraints, letting them create virtually any shape and configuration.
Complexity is free with 3D printing. The design elements that increase time and cost with CNC milling are no longer a player with 3D
printing. Certain geometries can’t be 3D printed without material that supports overhanging features and nested assemblies during the
build process. Hobby printers lack the capabilities, but professional 3D printers can produce complex parts, thin walls, internal cavities and
interlocking parts thanks to the soluble support. Hands-free support removal also saves labor, making the design process more productive
and efficient.
Controlling the temperature of the printer’s enclosed build
chamber is critical for maintaining design specifications as the
part is built. Curl is an inherent behavior of plastic as it cools
from a melted state and controlling this characteristic is essential
to maintain part quality, particularly for long, flat parts. This is
achieved with uniform airflow and complex temperature control
throughout the build area.
Dependability and Speed
Hobby-grade printers are not designed for high use. Print the
same high-quality part every time fast with a professional 3D
printer built for high utilization, constant temperature control and
engineering-grade technology allowing you to test designs early and often.
Some professional FDM 3D printers offer fast-draft print mode, which operates at twice the speed of the standard FDM prints and typically
using only one-third the material. This lets you 3D print models very quickly, whether it’s for faster part iterations to validate design concepts
or to quickly print multiple concept models for management or customer buy-in.
None of this would have been feasible
without 3D printing. We printed
whatever parts we could because we
didn’t want to send it to manufacturing
and lose control over the timing and
the quality. There’s a real benefit
to having a part in your hand and
evaluating it with very little effort or
manpower.
Patrick Campbell, VER
In-house 3D printing advantages
3D printing in house shrinks product development time and improves design
optimization. It also offers added insurance against supply chain risks. When
development timelines are in danger due to part or resource delays, 3D printing
parts in house keeps production schedules on track.
Value
Professional 3D printers can work overnight without the need for monitoring.
That means you can produce reliable results that justify the investment because
of the increased capability, efficiency and consistency. Often, the printers pay for
themselves with just a small number of projects. In-house 3D printing not only
saves on time and cost during product development, it also opens the door to
additional revenue streams such as low-volume tooling production. In contrast,
hobby equipment limits long-term prototyping capabilities due to low-quality
results and time wasted babysitting print jobs.
Confidentiality
Prototyping in-house with local 3D printers not only speeds your design
development, it also protects your intellectual property. There’s no risk that
confidential design information will fall into competitors’ hands through outside
machine shops and service bureaus. You can keep your new product under wraps, and still get to market faster.
Cost savings
3D printing is a cost-efficient way to produce models and parts in house. If you outsource, the cost in time and dollars adds up quickly, on
average $2500 per prototype, when using traditional methods.
Improving the surface finish of the tool will improve the surface finish of the formed parts.
We invested in additive
manufacturing to not only
enhance our processes,
but extend into new tooling
applications to further
differentiate ourselves as
an end-to-end, design-toproduction service. The 3D
printer has been a gamechanger for us… Not only
does it make the work
of our operators much
easier, it frees up resources
and increases our overall
productivity.
Darío González Fernández, Indaero
FDM tooling works with the same thermoforming equipment, processes and procedures used with traditional tooling methods.
Make rapid prototyping smarter,
faster and more productive
If you’re in the business of designing and developing new products, the office-friendly, professional-grade Stratasys F123™ 3D Printer
Series offers the straightest path to a positive impact on your bottom line. These 3D printers are designed for ease of use and shorter,
streamlined workflows that give your team the capability, reliability and simplicity needed to iterate, refine and perfect designs. They can
do that in an office environment with clean, safety-certified 3D printers that are the quietest on the market, using three engineering-grade
plastics, plus the economical choice of PLA and Fast-Draft mode.
This solution is not only for companies new to 3D printing but for long-time practitioners of the technology. That’s because Stratasys F123
3D Printers maximize results with consistent performance and a simplified workflow using GrabCAD Print. That’s beyond what’s currently
available in hobby 3D printers.
Stratasys F123 3D Printers leverage the time-tested durability and success of FDM technology to offer the highest level of reliability out-ofthe-box for a range of capabilities and budgets. Over 100,000 hours of testing support that assertion. Stratasys F123 Series supports for
every stage of prototyping, and is easy to operate and maintain, whatever your level of experience. The F123 enables:
> Faster decision making with the project timeline
> Early discovery of potential design failures
> Ability to adjust designs and iterate rapidly
> Increase profitability, speeding time to decision means you can take on more projects
> New revenue streams
ROI
Hobby-grade printers may be cheap, but they will yield cheap results and frequent breakdowns, driving your ROI down to nothing. To
achieve ROI in less than a year, invest in a professional-grade rapid protytping 3D printer.
It’s as easy as…
We’ve saved over $45,000 so far this year, and countless days of time. Costs were going to be about $18 a cubic inch to print out-ofhouse, versus material costs of just over $4 a cubic inch. Based on this quoted cost, our volume of printing on our two machines has
already saved us enough to pay for the two printers.