Gearheads Boycott Scrap Yards and Swap Meets

It's a problem that's all too familiar for custom automobile enthusiasts - finding replacement parts. Featured in this month’s edition of Street Thunder magazine, Eric Anderson reveals how FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) gives you the power to print your own parts and put the fun back in restoring vintage and muscle cars.

Depending on size and complexity, most parts can be produced with FDM in less than 24hours. Because FDM uses real thermoplastics, you can create strong parts that hold up under high pressure and temperatures - perfect for automobile components. Ultimately, it means you can design a part today and have a real part shipped to you the next morning.

If you like restoring cars, but hate chasing down replacement parts - read the entire article. It'll give you the inside scoop on how you can use direct digital manufacturing services (sometimes called 3D printing services) to get parts fast.

Throw Your Design for Manufacturability Guide Out the Window

Starting any new product design with a traditional Design for Manufacturability (DFM) checklist can stifle innovation. Why limit your creativity? One of the key benefits of additive manufacturing is true freedom of design. Find out how you can use additive manufacturing technology to put the fun back into product development.

If you design plastic parts you probably have a Design for Manufacturability (DFM) guide sitting on your desk. A typical list of things to consider when designing for plastic injection molding include:
•Radii
•Wall Uniformity
•Ribs
•Bosses
•Draft
•Snap-fits
•Screws
•Molded-in Threads
•Picture Framing
•Warpage

For each of the above bullets, you must alter your design to accommodate the limitations of injection molding tooling, (which is what “design for manufacturability” is all about). By the time the DFM rules are met, your original design may end up needing numerous adjustments, taking away from its intended use.

Talk about sucking the wind out of your creativity. Of course when you’re designing a product to be produced from plastic in the tens of thousands or more, your only choice for this volume is injection molding. But how many of you design products that will only be produced in the hundreds to a couple of thousand?

Using an additive manufacturing technology such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) allows you to produce parts directly from digital CAD files. Because plastic parts are built in layers, you’re no longer confined to the constraints of DFM.

Take for example this electrical connector cover. The designers knew they were only going to produce a couple of hundred covers. Functionality required some internal channels that would normally require a multiple piece component. When the designers found out they were going to use their FDM system for the final production parts, they threw DFM constraints out the window. Instead of multiple components, they designed the internal channels into a single component. They also minimized their design time by not worrying about radii, fillets or draft angles. Straight walls and 90 degree angles were perfectly acceptable.

Using direct digital manufacturing allows you the design freedom your product deserves. Imagine being able to optimize your design and product for its true end-use and not have to worry about how it's going to be manufactured.

Direct digital manufacturing with FDM could be the next industrial revolution because it offers companies an unprecedented freedom to innovate their products, processes and businesses.

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

The Evolution of Additive Manufacturing Materials

Deciding what material to use for your project is probably the most important decision you make. The testing or usability considerations undoubtedly determine the mechanical properties of the material, whether it is heat resistance, durability, elasticity or fine feature detail. Today's availability of multiple materials to match nearly any project is a testament to the expeditious evolution of material development.
More than 15 years ago, Stratasys started out using wax with its FDM technology because it was easiest to develop due to its low temperature resistance. It is also commonly used in investment casting so it seemed like the perfect segue from traditional manufacturing processes to rapid prototyping. As rapid prototyping gained momentum in the industry, the need for more functional prototypes rose demanding more durable materials.

ABS was developed to provide a more structurally sound prototype that enhanced testing for fit, function, durability and temperature resistance. ABS is a highly functional material that can be used to create prototypes, jigs and fixtures and production parts. It is widely used in applications where impact-resistance and structural strength are necessary.

Additionally, its dimensional stability positions it as an ideal material for pre-production rapid prototypes that can accurately predict performance of injection molded parts.

More than 10 years after the introduction of ABS, Stratasys introduced a material that is even stronger and more functional that ABS – ABS-M30. ABS- M30 is approximately 50 percent stronger than traditional ABS. The increase in strength provides more functional prototyping and digital manufacturing options for designers and engineers today.

Within the last 5 years, FDM technology has expanded the number of materials to include Polycarbonate (PC) and Polyphenylsulfone (PPSF) in addition to a variety of ABS and PC blends. There are even some that meet ISO 10993-1 and USP Class VI classification 1 for medical applications.

The most recent addition to FDM materials is Ultem 9085. If you're in the automotive, aerospace, or military industries you've probably heard of it. At a tensile strength of 10,390 psi1 and flexural stress of 16,700 psi, it's the strongest FDM thermoplastic available today. It is also inherently flame-retardant, offering full flame/smoke/toxicity (FST) compliance including OSU heat release of less than 55/55.

The constant evolution of better, stronger, more functional materials has created a real alternative for designers to choose FDM over injection molding.