The FDM Tooling Alternative

The following events, although fictional, are very real problems in companies with low volume product needs.

Design Engineer (DE): " I just spoke with our tooling vendor and they are quoting us $15,000 just for the tool and the lead time is 4 weeks."

Engineering Manager (EM): Gets out his calculator. "We only need 50 parts, that's $300 per part not including their molding costs. We need these out in the field next week if possible. What's with the long lead time?"

DE: "Remember we designed in some complex features because it needs to fit with other components. Redesigning this will take another week minimum and we might have to create multiple parts to make this work, costing more to get it tooled."

EM: "What about those FDM rapid prototype parts we had built in a couple of days and tested last month? They withstood our testing requirements and as I recall they had some fairly complex features as well. Do you think using FDM would work for these parts in the field?"

DE: "You know what, this might be the perfect application for this part, I'll go find out what 3D printing service she used for those prototypes."

Sometime in the near future .......

The design engineer gave it shot and had a first article part delivered overnight for validation. The part worked great, so the rest of the 50 parts were ordered. The 3D printing service provider was able to build the parts over the weekend and had them delivered and on the doorstep by Tuesday, ready for assembly.

The engineers were treated like heroes for their ingenuity in getting the products into the field faster than ever before.

EM: "Using FDM as an alternative to tooling is our best secret weapon yet!"

Lesson Learned: Always have an alternative manufacturing method like FDM that can fit your budget and time. FDM IS an alternative to tooling and outsourcing can provide yet another vehicle to getting parts in your hands fast. For more details, visit RedEyeOnDemand.

Written by Tim Thellin from Stratasys Inc

Direct Digital Manufacturing vs. Rapid Tooling: Seven Key Considerations

Let us help you take the guesswork out of choosing the right low-volume manufacturing technique for your project. Direct Digital Manufacturing has distinct advantages and disadvantages. And so does Rapid Tooling. Find out how engineers just like you are saving time and money by choosing between these technologies.

We are definitely seeing an exciting trend towards the use of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology for production parts.

•25% of RedEye customers order parts for end-use applications

•42% of Fortus 3D Production System owners use their system for manufacturing parts (in some frequency)

•Even Dimension 3D Printers are sometimes used for manufacturing

The key advantages of using Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) apply only to low and sometimes mid-volume production applications. Because of this, DDM is often compared to rapid tooling which produces aluminum cores and cavities intended for injection molding.

When considering which process to use for your product, Rapid Tooling (RT) vs. Direct Digital Manufacturing; here are the 7 key things to consider:

1.Quantity - Do you need 100 or 5,000? Even if you need thousands of parts, DDM is a great way to get product to market faster using it as a bridge-to-tooling.

2.Geometry Complexity - The more complex your part, the more complex and costly it is to produce a rapid tool.

3.Material Options - With rapid tooling you're open to a broad range of materials, but with FDM it's limited material choices still offers the benefit of production-grade thermoplastics.

4.Tight Tolerances - For simple geometries RT is ideal, but FDM has shown to produce parts with accuracies up to 0.003 of an inch.

5.Revisions/Modifications - If there's any risk, especially in the early phases of product production you can't beat DDM. Because there's no tool to be modified, simply continue production with revised digital files.

6.Surface Smoothness - nothing beats an injected molded part, but if the application is an internal component or surface aesthetics don't require a perfectly smooth surface, then DDM is an excellent alternative.

7.On Demand - in a digital world, nothing beats the benefits of direct digital manufacturing. DDM allows you to produce parts directly from the digitally created 3D files.

To watch the Webinar click here