Removing the barriers.
Looking at this from a quantifiable perspective, the company says that the difference is witnessed in the lead-time savings when comparing traditionally produced tooling with those created via additive manufacturing.
“The time savings are enormous and it is no exaggeration to say that we’re comparing something that would take up to five or six weeks, versus having something in our hands within just a few days,” adds Guillaume Rigaud, CAD designer/developer at RUSTIN.
As well as producing tooling completely in FDM materials like ABS, ULTEM™ 9085 resin, and
FDM Nylon12 CF™ (carbon fiber), RUSTIN often develops items that combine 3D printed parts
with those produced in metal.
“The flexibility of additive manufacturing allows us to blend materials according to requirements, but it’s definitely fair to say that, due to the complexity of certain components, much of what we produce with the technology wouldn’t be possible through other more basic machining methods. With FDM additive manufacturing, we can produce any tool design we want – even complex items – in just one step. The technology removes barriers for us,” Rigaud continues.
RUSTIN clearly recognizes that time-savings and improved production agility naturally enhance capacity levels and overall responsiveness to customers. This is why, despite some significant cost savings, it has been quick to assess the value of its Stratasys investment in overall terms, as opposed to merely comparing the cost per part using additive manufacturing to that of traditional methods.
“From a cost perspective, it is around 50% less expensive to produce production tooling or parts with FDM additive manufacturing compared to traditional machining – but I would maintain that isolating the cost alone to produce something just doesn’t give you the full picture,” explains Louis Rustin. “With our Fortus 450mc, we have less machine downtime, less capital and less labor, which means we can redistribute manpower elsewhere. The push-and-play element of the technology means that once a print job has been set to run, the operator can do something else. That’s a hidden, but also very obvious advantage that is extremely important, as it increases our overall performance, reactiveness and ability to serve our customers more quickly,” he adds.
Rigaud cites an example from Alstom, a Rustin customer, involving the failure of a production
line motor air duct, which halted manufacturing. Rustin used its Fortus 450mc to quickly make components to fix the duct using ULTEM™ 9085 resin, allowing production to continue.
“We received the request from Alstom and had their production line back up and running inside of four days, which was much more favourable than the several weeks they would have been looking at to have traditional parts made and installed,” says Rigaud.