SAP charts course for rapid prototyping but discovers rapid manufacturing
SAP (Sørlandets Aluminiumprodukter) in Kristiansand, Norway, designs and manufactures products for marine environments and the offshore industry. It produces helmsman chairs, table columns and other equipment. The team regularly faces tight deadlines and it needed a solution to speed up design without compromising accuracy.
Following its success with outsourced rapid prototyping work, SAP justified having its own
in-house machine.
Product development manager Harald Jansen said: “The Stratasys FDM Vantage SE offered capacity, a variety of performance materials, quality finish, and virtually no post processing. It was clearly the solution for us.”
The technology has changed the way SAP works.
Andy Smith, industrial designer, said: “We were struggling to meet a deadline on an order with a completely new design. The team used the Vantage machine to produce parts for testing. Not only were they strong and durable, the parts looked so good on the chairs that the team knew they could be more than just prototypes. The FDM parts simplified the designs for complex moving and interlocking mechanisms, they stood up to all our testing, and the company who ordered the chairs loved
the look.”
Using FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) prototyping processes, Stratasys prototyping systems create precision 3D parts directly from 3D CAD systems for use in testing form, fit and function throughout the design and development process. n
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Stratasys is based in Frankfurt am MainGermany. www.stratasys.com
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