Raise3D: Faster Iterations With The Pro Series
Raise3D's Pro series 3D Printers are second to none when it comes to engineering-grade work. Design Iteration and Trial fitting are a breeze when you have the right materials and tolerances! Just take a look at this Wheel Drum that was designed and printed by Andrew Marangoni (@andruzzu on instagram). We were lucky enough to be able to pick Andrew's brain about his project, and what it took to get to the final result!
Credit: @andruzzu on instagram
Andrew is the Technical Director and Lead Engineer at Pfaff Motorsports, and sees a large selection of racecars coming through the shop regularly. For this project, Andrew and his team were assisting a customer with a Mercedes AMG GT4. In order for them to conduct a Suspension Alignment for the vehicle, a set of tools called "hubstands" were required. Unfortunately, the team did not have the necessary adapters to fit the hubstand tool to this vehicle in particular.
Luckily, Andrew had purchased his Raise3D Pro2 specifically for instances just like this. Thanks to the Pro2's print resume function (which allows the printer to continue running in the event of a power or filament outage), Andrew was able to manufacture his own adapters in his off time without having to worry about print failures.
Andrew was quickly able to validate the designs and produced test pieces prior to manufacturing the final (aluminum) components. For his initial testing, Andrew used Solidworks for modellings the parts he needed, and then Ideamaker to slice for printing. Since these parts were specifically printed as trial/test fitting parts, Andrew chose to use eSun PLA+ Cold White, as the colour/finish is great for transferring witness marks, and it would also be cost-effective for testing.
This step is crucial to ensure that the final production parts are sized accurately to fit, without wasting too much expensive material in the process. Thanks to his Pro2 3D Printer, Andrew was able to create an accurately sized fitting part by making use of it's large build volume in as little as 1-2 attempts.
A project of this nature normally involves die-casting, which is the process of melting down aluminum to a liquid form before pouring it into a large Mold and letting it cool. These molds are called dies, and requires a furnace, metal, die casting machine, and a die. Without owning all this equipment yourself, it is near impossible to design parts like this within a short time frame.
As you can see from the above videos, Andrew's design was validated successfully, and he was then able to produce production level aluminum CNC parts from his 3D Printed parts. These parts are now being used in the field with success. In a span of only 1-2 days, Andrew was able to design and test a print straight from his Raise3D Pro2, and quickly move it along into the production stages. All-in-all, the total timeframe for the project (including the manufacture of CNC aluminum parts) was roughly a month.
Thanks to Raise3D's Pro Series 3D printers, rapid prototyping can be leveraged to achieve results in a shorter amount of time compared to traditional methods. Instead of spending hours shopping online or reaching out to manufacturers for the parts needed, Andrew was able to quickly and efficiently streamline the process by making his own, and successfully moved them into production for the field at a fraction of the cost!
Normally unsuccessful iterations for test fits would need to be printed and tested multiple times after making minute changes. This is usually done with casted and molded parts and is a lengthy process. By using a Raise3D Pro Series 3D Printer to quickly test multiple iterations, Andrew was successfully able to cut the process down significantly, while simultaneously achieving great results.
Raise3D also offers print settings and information on compatible materials in their Open Filament Program. The Open Filament Program is a great resource for finding out which material would be best for your project in terms of functionality and cost.
To learn more about Raise3D 3D Printers and which one is right for you, speak with one of our experts here. Alternatively you can view Raise3D's entire lineup of 3D Printers here.
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