Is 3d Printing Production Ready?
The 3D printing toolkit has come a long way recently but that doesn’t mean Additive manufacturing is the best tool for mass production. It is important to carefully evaluate whether 3D printing is the best option for your specific project. If its a good fit, additive can lower costs, accelerate timelines and enable creation of part geometries never before possible. Here are the reasons why 3D printing may be a good choice for mass production, especially large parts:
Customizable products
ex: Cosine produces a line of planters— customers can vary color, diameter and other parameters to customize their planter. Traditionally producing these planters would require one-off tooling for each combination of parameters but that tooling can be avoided with 3d printing, saving manufacturing setup time, warehousing and ultimately cost!Quickly start production and iterate designs
ex: Because of its “tool-less” nature, 3d printing equipment requires less time to setup than traditional manufacturing making it more time and cost competitive than traditional manufacturing. To make a change to a print, upload a new part design and reslice, then you’re on your way! No extra tooling required!Large parts save material
ex: The bigger the part, the more 3d printing makes sense vs subtractive manufacturing. Just think about it, with subtractive you start with a large block of material and cut away what you no longer need. This typically wastes 90% of the material! Even if you’ve specified a cheap material like ABS— billet cost is around $7/lb, then you throw away 90% of that. Pellets cost $1.10/lb and you use nearly all of it! Just by producing your parts additively, you’ll save on material costs.Part complexity: ability to produce complex parts that would be otherwise impossible to manufacture
ex: Cosine printed a 38ft tall totem pole statue. This example is simply too large to make with injection molding. The alternative for the customer was to machine foam and manually coat it with fiberglass. 3d printing with recycled ASA pellets was less labor intensive, produced a higher quality, sustainable part, and was much more economical!
Starting production with Cosine
Using 3D printing for production is a relatively new concept, and many product teams may not have the expertise needed to fully utilize these technologies. Working with a knowledgeable 3D printing partner can help to ensure a smooth transition and successful implementation. Cosine can assist with minimizing errors, increasing part consistency, accelerating production, and designing parts for additive manufacturing.
When searching for a production partner, it is important to look for a manufacturer with a range of 3D printing capabilities and extensive expertise to ensure that the right technology is being used for your project and the full benefits of 3D printing are being realized. At Cosine we deal in production parts and rapid prototyping. Our focus is on large parts. We use the best tool for the project be it additive, subtractive, or other form of traditional manufacturing.
