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Stratasys F123 use Case Complex Designs Fast

F123 Story / / Complex Designs, Fast

At the Center for Advanced Design (CAD), a product development firm in Minnesota, a team of design engineers specialize in creating complex surface geometry for the plastics industry. Similar to Fathom’s in-house Design & Engineering Team, CADs agile team of six handles everything from industrial design concepts and digital sketching to assisting clients with implementation by building production tooling. Their ability to advance projects quickly keeps their specialized team very busy. “We’ve carved a niche out for ourselves designing plastic components for customers in the power sports industry,” Jesse Hahne, partner at CAD, said. “Many of the larger companies we work for are very talented, but they move slower. When deadlines are looming, they look to us to get their complex projects back on track.”

Smarter Prototyping

Developing a customer need into a product requires an ability to verify concepts, validate designs and test function fast; a process made more efficient with CAD’s in-house Stratasys F370 3D Printer.

“Time is our only product, so it’s all about saving time to get to the next project,” said Hahne. “3D printing prototypes gives us the ability to fail fast. We can produce multiple design iterations quickly or change a product design overnight to meet a customer’s deadline. The parts are accurate and the process is dependable.”

The Stratasys F370 with GrabCAD Print software streamlines the team’s shared workflow and makes CAD even more responsive to fast-moving projects.

“The Stratasys F370 prints quite a bit faster and we’re able to process projects quickly,” said Hahne. “We save time with GrabCAD Print and that’s a real cost savings to us.”

The team not only benefits from the speed and ease of use, but the ability to use materials that create high-quality parts. “Now we can run ASA and we absolutely love it,” Hahne said. “With ASA we can run 5-slice and print higher-resolution parts, which gives that ‘wow’ factor with our customers. 3D printing intricate housings in 5-slice was almost like an injection molded part when we were done.”

Continuous Design Improvement

F123-Case-Study-Parts-940

The all-in-one capabilities of the Stratasys F370 help CAD continuously improve product designs, like their popular motocross helmet. Feedback on a previous version prompted CAD to make design changes more in line with what riders want – a helmet that can accommodate a neck brace and a camera.

“We came up with an interchange system for the helmet to fit a neck brace better”

“We were able to print and test two different concepts before committing to tooling.”

— Hahne

CAD also designed a new mount to hold a GoPro camera on the visor of the helmet. “Typically riders use a suction cup or tape to attach a camera to their helmet, but they don’t want to stick adhesive to a really expensive paint job. So we built a mount right onto the visor of our helmet,” Hahne said. “We 3D printed and tested it three times to determine the optimal position for filming.”

Custom Tooling for Custom Designs

““Building fixtures out of wood or aluminum using CNC machining was a time consuming process,” Hahne said. “With the new Stratasys F370, we can 3D print huge fixtures that we weren’t able to print before or we’d have to glue together. Now we can print 70-90% of what we do without dovetailing.””

Not only does 3D printing enable quick product development, the team at CAD 3D prints assembly fixtures for clients that are specific to the new products they design.

 

Features of the Stratasys F370 like its minimal setup, fast-draft mode and autocalibration ensures less time troubleshooting and more time for the team to tackle the next complex design.

Comprehensive Capabilities for Rapid Manufacturing

At Fathom we offer a unique advantage of speed and agility-our experts help companies go from concept to prototype to manufacturing in ways not previously possible. 

90+ Machines  
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Prototype Tool / / As soon as 10 days
10K Parts / / 10 days
Production Tool / / As soon as 3 weeks
 

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3 & 5 Axis Milling & Turning
(Plastics, Composites and Metals)

Tolerance Accuracy Range
from +/-0.001″ to 0.005″

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Injection Molding Adjacent
without High Costs of Metal Tools

Most Commonly Used for High-Volume
Prototyping & Bridge to Production

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Finishing, Production Painting and Color Matching

Assembling, Including Embedded Electronic
Components, Threaded Inserts, and More

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CAD, DFAM and DFM Services

Apply Methods to Increase Speed
and Decrease Total Cost

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Highly Trained Staff / / Full-Time & Part-Time
Support as Short-Term & Long-Term Strategy

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Fathom is driven by advanced technologies and methods that enhance and accelerate today’s product development and production processes.

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Manufacturing Locations Across National Time Zones
Manufacturing Locations Across National Time Zones
The Fathom Advanced Manufacturing Platform
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HEADQUARTERS

1050 Walnut Ridge Drive
Hartland, WI 53029
ISO 9001:2015
AS9100:2016
ITAR

ARIZONA

444 W. 21st St. Ste. 101
Tempe, AZ 85282
ISO 9001:2015
NIST800-171 Compliant
ITAR

COLORADO

7770 Washington St.
Denver, CO 80229
ISO 9001:2015
ITAR

MINNESOTA

13758 Johnson Street NE
Ham Lake, MN 55304

TEXAS

1801 Rowe Lane
Pflugerville, TX 78660
ISO 9001:2015
AS9100:2016

1513 Sam Bass Rd
Round Rock, TX 78681
ISO 9001:2015
ISO 13485:2016

CALIFORNIA

46758 Lakeview Blvd,
Fremont, CA 94538
ISO 9001:2015 Design Certified
NIST 800-171 Compliant
ITAR

FLORIDA

14000 N.W. 58th Court
Miami Lakes, FL 33014

NEW YORK

1920 Slaterville Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
ITAR

401 W. Shore Blvd.
Newark, NY 14513
AS9100:2016
ISO 9001:2015
ITAR

ILLINOIS

1207 Adams Drive
McHenry, IL 60051
ISO 9001:2015

1401 Brummel Ave
Elk Grove, IL 60007
ISO 9001:2015 Design Certified

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