User Stories

Large-Format 3D Printing Unlocks New Frequencies for Bell Casting

3D Printed Pattern for Bell Metal Casting

Australian Bell turns to FEA software and 3D printing to bring bell production into the 21st century.

The musical chimes and resounding gongs of bells have inspired and enchanted people for millennia; whether accompanying religious and spiritual ceremonies, used for communication or played for musical purposes. The process of making bells—known as bellfounding—is almost as captivating as the sounds emitted from the percussion instruments themselves.

Dating back thousands of years, to as early as 2,000 BC, bellfounding is a specific and finely honed craft, which has evolved in incremental ways over the centuries. Interestingly, today’s process of making bells largely resembles the casting process used for the past thousand or so years. As we’ll see in more detail, however, there have been important developments in bell design and bellfounding in recent years, unlocked through a combination of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, BigRep large-format 3D printers, and the bellmaking expertise of Dr. Anton Hasell from Australian Bell.

How a bell gets its ring

Before diving into how 3D printing is creating new possibilities for bell production, it is first important to understand the foundations of bellfounding. As stated, the bellmaking process has been relatively consistent for over a thousand years, comprising moldmaking, casting, and finishing. Traditionally, bell molds were handmade using strickles (bell shaped paddles revolved around a central axis to make the inner or outer profile of the bell in mould refractories) or with false bell patterns made in wax or wood.) These shaped refractory materials are filled with molten metal in the casting process.

Once the mold was made, the next step was to melt the metal used for bells to a temperature of about 1100 degrees Celsius. The most common metal for bellmaking is a type of bronze alloy - appropriately called bell metal - known for its resounding properties. The molten metal was then carefully poured into the mold, and then left to cool. When the metal solidified, the mold could be removed and the bellmaker could fine-tune the bell by shaving off inner layers of metal until the right sound was achieved. The final step was to install the clapper, which creates sound by hitting either the inside or outside of the bell.

3D Printed Bell Casting Pattern

A new approach by Australian Bell

Today, while molding and casting are still employed to make bells, there are different approaches to bell design and mold production. Australian Bell, a bellmaking company founded by Dr. Hasell that was incorporated in 1998, has been at the forefront of using new technologies and techniques to broaden the possibilities of bell making, achieving new sounds and pitches, as well as modernizing the production process.

One of the key technologies used by Australian Bell and other modern bellmakers is Finite Element Analysis software, which simulates how a design will respond to external forces, such as vibration. This software has allowed for the optimization of bell designs, resulting in new frequencies and sound profiles. For instance, in 2001, in celebration of Australia’s centenary of Federation, Australian Bell used ReShape FEA software to design the world’s first harmonic bell, capable of the clearest pitch salience. This is compared to traditional European bells, which typically have partial frequencies with polytonal sounds, affecting their clarity. [federationbells.com.au]

3D printing rings in a new era in bell manufacturing

In 2014, the company was tasked with creating a new type of bell for the Long Now Foundation’s 10,000 Year Clock (built within a mountain in West Texas). The bell, commissioned by Danny Hillis, inventor and co-founder of the Long Now Clock, was a difference-tone bell, meaning it could generate a psychoacoustic pitch an octave below the bell’s actual lowest frequency. This bell design allows a bell to be half the size of a traditional bell of the same pitch to fit into the clock construction.

Once again leveraging ReShape FEA software, Dr. Hasell was able to design this challenging bell. With the success of the design, he was then commissioned to make and tune a set of 10 bells (fun fact: the musical scale of the bells was decided by British musician and composer Brian Eno!) [longnow.org]

In order to maintain the highly accurate shape of the bell design, Dr. Hasell turned to a new method of mold making; 3D printing. A large-format 3D printer from German company, BigRep was used to produce the foundry pattern for the bells.  The 3D printed patterns - in effect, 3D printed versions of the bells - were used to create precise molds for the sandcasting process.  Once the pattern was printed, it had to undergo post-processing to remove support materials. From there, it was packed with resin sand to form a mold. The pattern was then removed from the packed sand, and the sand mold was cast with a modern bronze alloy, silicon bronze metal, finished and polished, and shipped from Australia to the United States.

By using 3D printing for the direct production of the bell pattern, Australian Bell was able to streamline the bell production process significantly. Historically, the pattern-making process for bells was done manually, requiring a high-degree of skill and craftsmanship—and that’s not to mention how time-consuming it was. 3D printing removes this labour-intensive step entirely, making the pattern based on a digital design.

3D Printing a Metal Casting Pattern

More recently, Australian Bell produced another bell using this same technique. This time, Melbourne-based 3D printing consultancy Freedspace partnered with Australian Bell to 3D print a pattern for a 300 kg European-style bell. The BigRep ONE 3D printer, with a build volume of one cubic meter, was essential in the production of a bell of this size.

The benefits of large-scale 3D printing for casting

Ultimately, the combination of FEA software, 3D printing, and more traditional casting is breathing new life into bell design and production. On the one hand, FEA software is enabling the design of increasingly complex bell geometries to achieve previously impossible sound frequencies. Large-scale 3D printing, for its part, makes it possible to bring these designs to life through the production of life-size patterns. Casting, finally, ensures the same high-quality standards that bell makers have honed over the generations.

Bell Made with a 3D Printed Pattern

At Australian Bell, these cutting-edge technologies are a means to an end. That is, the company aims to introduce new bell sounds for contemporary urban designs in order to transition the communal uses for bells in modern communities. A perfect example of the company’s ongoing mission is the Federation Bell Carillon in Melbourne, a public installation that consists of 39 bells. People from all over the world can send their compositions to the City of Melbourne through a dedicated app, and the bells will play the musical tunes.

In a broader context, the Australian Bell use case exemplifies how large-scale 3D printing can supplement and enhance traditional manufacturing processes such as molding and casting. Large-format 3D printers are especially well suited to the production of sandcasting and molding patterns. Foundries are increasingly turning to 3D printing to produce patterns because it reduces production times (by directly 3D printing the pattern based on a 3D model) and cuts back on costs. Moreover, as Australian Bell demonstrated, 3D printed patterns are enabling more complex designs to be made using the casting process.

Want to Learn More About How Kennedy Valve Revived Pattern Making with 3D Printing?

Kennedy Valve was working with an aging workflow in sand casting applications, developing patterns and tooling with an external supply strategy that replaced their long retired in-house pattern shop. By adding a BigRep industrial 3D printer to their factory floor, they reduced their sand casting pattern and tooling expenses by an astounding $13,000 USD for just one part. Don't miss out, read the eBook here:

HOW KENNEDY VALVE REVIVED IN-HOUSE PATTERNMAKING WITH ADDITIVE

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

About the author:

Dominik Stürzer <a style="color: #0077b5" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-stuerzer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i class="fab fa-linkedin"></i></a>

Dominik Stürzer

Head of Growth Marketing

Dominik is a mechanical engineer whose passion to share knowledge turned him to content creation. His first 3D prints started in university. Back then the 3D printers were big on the outside and small on the inside. With BigRep the machines are finally big in their possibilities.

3D Printing Creates Mixed Reality Worlds

Mixed Reality Aerospace Program

How the Aix-Marseille Université aerospace facility’s technology-enhanced degree program is made possible with BigRep’s large-format additive manufacturing systems.

On Marseille’s busy south-France coast, Aix-Marseille Université, one of the largest universities in France with 8,000 staff and 80,000 students, has developed a unique accredited degree programs in aerospace engineering and maintenance by combining two novel technologies: large-format additive manufacturing and virtual reality.

Xavier Bonnardel is a doctor of aeronautics, a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille, as well as founder and director of Aix-Marseille’s technical aeronautical training school, POLYAERO. Bonnardel created POLYAERO in 2008 and, in 2016, helped establish its aeronautical formation center in the luscious Gap Tallard airfield – a 2500 m2 specialized facility for the technologically advanced POLYAERO programs. Students from all over the world enroll in the exclusive program every year, drawn by the modern tools it uses to provide a unique hands-on education, a BigRep industrial 3D printer among them.

In 1994, as France’s shipping regulations around aircraft maintenance made it difficult for universities to meet state criteria, Bonnardel took on the challenge of developing an effective university program to meet the new restrictions. In a partnership with Airbus, Bonnardel and Aix-Marseille developed their program which later became nationally recognized, making POLYAERO the first school in Europe with a part 66 C regulation-compliant bachelor program in aircraft maintenance.

Beyond simply meeting state regulations, Bonnardel and POLYAERO are no strangers to the rapidly evolving demands in education as schools strive to remain aligned with modern industries like aviation and their ever-changing technologies. The school has partnered closely with notable aerospace companies from around the world including Airbus, Dassault, and Safran to ensure they’re always at the forefront of innovation in aerospace. It’s with these close partnerships that POLYAERO has created their present exclusive program that leverages modern technology to give students unmatched hands-on experience, making them incredibly valuable to POLYAERO’s industrial partners.

POLYAERO functions with apprenticeship-style programs – not unlike the German “Duale Ausbildung” vocational training – operating in a cooperative system with leading international aerospace companies. By working with industrial giants like Airbus and Dassault, students rotate every two months between studying at POLYAERO’s Gap Tallard campus and working for their industrial employer. Positions in the programs are strictly limited to the amount of student interns POLYAERO’s industrial partners can handle, meaning at any given time POLYAERO has only about 100 students from approximately 1,000 annual applicants.

Technology-Assisted Learning in Aerospace

As a university institution, POLYAERO and Aix-Marseille simply don’t have the budget for a hangar full of the modern aircrafts that students will be working with after graduation. But without hands-on experience students are ill-prepared to enter the workforce, forcing aerospace companies to expand their training and onboarding to get new entrants up to speed. Bonnardel decided that modern technology and some simple program logistics offered a path around these limitations and, expanding on his existing 25-year relationship with Airbus, began implementing modern technology into the learning process to create a virtual reality assisted learning program.

Airbus invested in the program early on, providing POLYAERO with digital mockups of their H175 helicopter to jump start their virtual aeronautic collection. They also helped to develop the program logistics and the use of its associated technologies. In fact, Airbus was excited enough about the program to place two highly qualified Airbus employees at POLYAERO’s facilities who still work out of the Gap Tallard campus today. In turn the school continues to develop and manage the program, constantly investing in facilities to support their modern technology. Due to its high technological integration, the campus maintains a variety of technology-learning facilities: 3D labs and simulation rooms like the “Virtual Reality Cave,” a dedicated space for students to safely use the virtual reality systems with two massive projected screens that allow instructors to follow their students’ performance.

Unfortunately, the first attempt at the program didn’t satisfy POLYAERO. Students received detailed learning into the practices and processes of aeronautical maintenance but didn’t quite get the hands-on experience that Bonnardel and Airbus were looking for the program to provide.

“We began to work with virtual reality, but we realized that it wasn’t very good - it was too much like a video game, not realistic enough. But Airbus wanted to development this technology and we worked together to do it.”

Xavier Bonnardel, Founder and Director, POLYAERO

Floor Plan for the Mixed Reality Set-Up
Floor Plan for the Mixed Reality Set-Up

That’s when POLYAERO connected with BigRep’s French reseller, Neofab, to acquire an industrial 3D printer large enough to meet their needs as they delved into the program’s next stage. “We needed to put more physics into Virtual Reality – the mass of objects to be moved, geometrical encumbrances such as firewalls, etcetera. And thus, to transform Virtual Reality into Mixed Reality.”

Additive Manufacturing for Mixed Reality Learning

Having already acquired the tools of a virtual reality training system, POLYAERO leveraged additive manufacturing to double down on their technological solution. If virtual reality couldn’t deliver a genuine experience, they needed to mix the limitless scenarios and aircra s offered by virtual reality with physical experiences. Using their BigRep 3D printer, POLYAERO introduced Mixed Reality, to balance the benefits of virtual reality and physical, 3D printed mockup parts for an ideal training solution.

Before acquiring their 3D printer, POLYAERO tried to have students create mockup parts out of cardboard to act as stand ins for genuine aerospace parts.  While these hand-made mockup parts did offer better physical stimulus to learn, the parts were often flimsy, dimensionally inaccurate, and incredibly time consuming to create – cutting into student’s valuable learning time.

POLYAERO decided that to have a Mixed Reality program that truly enables virtual learning, the parts students are working with must be as close to the real thing as possible. Here is where BigRep’s large-format additive manufacturing systems have shined.

POLYAERO owns a few aircraft of their own.

With their part copies printed on a BigRep 3D printer, POLYAERO’s students save an abundance of time that would otherwise be wasted creating mockups, work with copies that match a real part’s dimensions, and are sturdily manufactured with BigRep’s affordable PLA filament. Because of the parts’ added strength, POLYAERO’s students are even able to include weights that further serve the realistic illusion they’ve created.

As added value, the students working with POLYAERO are gaining valuable experience with 3D printing technology and CAD software – an important tool in the modern aerospace industry. “with this generation of students we didn’t have any problem,” Bonnardel said when asked how students have been getting along with the integration of this new technology. “For them there is no problem.”

Virtual Modeling with 3D Scanning

Though the majority of POLYAERO’s fleet is digital, there are a few aircrafts of their own in the Gap Tallard campus’ 700 m2 hangar: two Dolphin SA365 helicopters and a Lark 3 SA316 from Airbus, a TB10 and MCR4S, a KOMPRESS class 6 ULM and five UAVs. All these aircrafts were provided free of charge by POLYAERO’s industrial aerospace partners.

POLYAERO adds to their ever-growing database of virtual aircrafts by using 3D scanning to create digital copies of every part on the aircrafts they routinely acquire on a temporary basis. Students get hands-on with aircrafts in real life, tearing them down to individual parts and reverse engineering them. By doing this they not only help to build their school’s virtual database, but also garner their own experience.

“It’s like making a painting,” Bonnardel said as he explained how students easily scan airplanes and helicopters before treating the files with specialized so ware to create a final, perfect digital copy of the aircraft and all its parts. “We can reproduce or improve the aircraft, if you want.”

Student also learn how to scan 3D objects....

Hands on Prototyping

Students aren’t just learning how to work with and maintain existing aircraft parts. POLYAERO has installed a wind tunnel so that students can design, print, and test their own part prototypes. By running parts through the wind tunnel students can perform an aerodynamic analysis, collecting the data they need to understand their part’s effectiveness. When using prototypes printed on their one-cubic-meter BigRep 3D printer, students can easily test, verify, and reiterate designs – just like industry professionals.

“For students it’s just a job of engineers. It’s practical engineering because they not only know theory but practice,” said Bonnardel. “It was unthinkable five years ago.”

Growing use of plastic AM in Aerospace

While creating their prototypes, POLYAERO’s students are gaining valuable experience with one of the most prolific, and iconic, additive manufacturing applications in the aerospace industry. Industrial giants have cut up to 90% of prototyping costs by integrating additive manufacturing into their workflows. Adapting these workflows has brought processes in-house to eliminate outsourcing expenses, unlocked unlimited iterations and dramatically reduced each iteration’s lead time to create an affordable prototyping process that gets companies’ innovations to market faster. By familiarizing students with this common process, POLYAERO is ensuring their success in a common aerospace engineering workflow that only continues to grow.

But 3D printing is quickly finding use in other areas of the aerospace industry too, with some of POLYAERO’s partners like Airbus creating affordable logistical aids – like shipping cases for delicate aerospace equipment – that can traditionally cost up to $15,000 on-demand with BigRep’s additive manufacturing systems.

Students also use their BigRep printer to create new solutions, like cases for sensitive parts.
Students also use their BigRep printer to create new solutions, like cases for sensitive parts.
...and to use their BigRep printer to recreate those or other parts.

Conclusion

Other methods of production simply couldn’t meet POLYAERO’s needs for realism and flexibility. While they could have outsourced their mixed reality mockup parts, the costs would have been prohibitive. Given the variety of parts that POLYAERO works with, the initial investment in their own industrial 3D printer was returned quickly compared to other possible acquisition strategies. By bringing a BigRep large-format 3D printer in-house, POLYAERO has created a flexible system that not only supplies the strong, realistic parts they need for their mixed reality programs, but also adds a valuable industrial tool to their state-of-the-art facilities. With it, they’re enriching students’ educations with one of the aerospace industry’s most disruptive technologies.

POLYAERO has observed such positive results from their mixed reality bachelor programs that they have decided to take the next step and create a Master of Aerospace Engineering program based upon the same principle. Bonnardel says that the program will carry on learnings taken from their previous experience to create a program that focuses more on the impact that industry 4.0 will have on aerospace engineering than other programs that exist today.

Applying an additive manufacturing solution to surpass the shortcomings of virtual reality assisted learning is just one of the many creative ways industrial additive manufacturing is finding unique, previously unexplored applications in advanced industries. POLYAERO’s impressive mixed reality program serves to show that when talented engineers work to redevelop traditional processes from their foundation, large-format 3D printing and BigRep additive manufacturing solutions result in previously unimaginable efficiencies and reinventions.

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

Setting the Pace for Customized Electric Cars – The First BigRep PRO in China

X-EV Electric Car Customization with Large 3D Printer

XEV is an innovative, forward-thinking company, with a mission to provide sustainable urban mobility to everyone for a better shared future.  And additive manufacturing plays an important role in development and production of their electric cars!

Traditional methods of producing cars typically involve large, complicated moulds and tools that are not only expensive, but also part specific.  By implementing additive manufacturing and the BigRep PRO into the production line, XEV has virtually eliminated the need for limited and resource intensive tooling, resulting in a flexible and efficient manufacturing process.  3D printing has allowed for fewer components, faster technical updates and significantly reduced production cycles.  It also dramatically reduces production costs meaning the savings can be passed on to our customers.

BigRep PRO in China 1

3D Printing Enables the Customisation Business Model

One of the key benefits of AM is customization.  And for XEV, it’s of the main benefits they provide to their customers. Thanks to the standardized fixing method between the customized parts and the car body, the 3D printed pieces will be able to be modified and changed with significantly less engineering work.

This is not very common in the automotive industry: shifting toward a more customer oriented manufacturing process. XEV is pushing the cutting edge innovation technologies and also places the individual user into the centre of the focus for an exceptional user experience.

“We are working very closely with some key customers to develop their own customized version of their cars,” said Jiawei Wu, Additive Manufacturing Director at XEV

There are two layers of customization that XEV is focusing on. The first layer is the design surface customization, which can represent  individual identity or the corporations value. The second layer of customization has more profound influence for the automotive industry, XEV will be willing to develop further our modular upper body in order to fit various needs.

3D Printed Parts for Electric Vehicles

“The PRO gives us better geometric precision thanks to its reliable machine design. Then it’s versatility provides us more opportunities to try different material and processes. With the PRO, it's much faster for us to develop more customization possibility and applications,” said by Jiawei Wu, Additive Manufacturing Director at XEV.

3D printing provides us a customer oriented process, and it gives us a lot of chance to trial different geometries. Also inside XEV’s smart manufacturing center, there is a very strong application team including professionals with good understanding of design and engineering. This team is the key intermedia connection between the customers and our smart manufacturing center.

The BigRep PRO for the Win

XEV arrived at the BigRep PRO after an extensive search for the right 3D printer that would help them fulfill their mission.  For XEV, size of the printer played a huge role as did the versatility of the system and it being an open material system.

XEV is currently using the PRO for three main applications.  First, for small volume test production as they are developing a lot of customized versions of Yoyo (their electric car) components.  Second, XEV does a lot of material testing on BigRep PRO, mainly fiber reinforcement materials.  And third, XEV does some traditional application like prototypes, fixtures, some production tooling.

Try out different things and different geometries. Thanks to the size and openness of the system, XEV is able to test out and try out a lot of different designs and geometries.  The BigRep PRO is the right tool for XEV to continue innovation for the future of customization in electric cars and provide a fast, customer-oriented experience.

INDUSTRIAL QUALITY MEETS COST EFFICIENCY.
COMPLEX PARTS IN LARGE SCALE.

The BigRep PRO is a 1 m³ powerhouse 3D printer, built to take you from prototyping to production. It provides a highly scalable solution to manufacture end-use parts, factory tooling or more with high-performance, engineering-grade materials. Compared with other manufacturing and FFF printing solutions, the PRO can produce full-scale, accurate parts faster and at lower production costs.

Explore the PRO

INDUSTRIAL QUALITY MEETS  COST EFFICIENCY.
COMPLEX PARTS IN LARGE SCALE.

The BigRep PRO is a 1 m³ powerhouse 3D printer, built to take you from prototyping to production. It provides a highly scalable solution to manufacture end-use parts, factory tooling or more with high-performance, engineering-grade materials. Compared with other manufacturing and FFF printing solutions, the PRO can produce full-scale, accurate parts faster and at lower production costs.

Explore the PRO

Large-Format 3D Printing Accelerates Fire Engine Manufacturing

3D Printing Fire Engine Manufacturing

Magirus uses large-format 3D printing for prototyping  of fire engines

Behind every firefighting team that responds to emergencies and fires, there is a fire engine, and behind every fire engine, there is a team of engineers working hard to deliver the safest and best-performing vehicles and features. That is precisely where Magirus comes in. The Germany-based company was founded in 1864 by firefighter Conrad Dietrich Magirus with the aim of pioneering state-of-the-art firefighting vehicles and products. Today, over 150 years later, large-format 3D printing is helping the company to continue this mission and move fire safety & disaster control solutions into the future.

Large-scale 3D printing heralds new era for fire engine prototyping

3D printing is not wholly new to Magirus. The company, which supplies a large range of fire fighting vehicles, turntable ladders, equipment and equipment wagons, special solutions, pumps and
portable pumps, has been using the technology since 2015 to enhance its prototyping and product development. Like most 3D printing adopters, Magirus initially worked in collaboration with external 3D printing service providers. In 2018, however, as the demand for large-scale prototypes increased, the company decided to invest in its own in-house 3D printer, the BigRep ONE.

Since then, 3D printing has become an integral part of Magirus' prototyping and product development workflows, especially for the production of aesthetic and ergonomic fire engine parts measuring more than 300 mm in length. Magirus' Chief Engineer in Prototyping Jens Krämer and his team frequently use the BigRep ONE to 3D print functional prototypes, which can be fitted and tested on trucks in order to validate the part design before moving ahead with tooling and production.

"Before 3D printing, prototyping was very expensive," Krämer states, explaining that his team used to rely on hand lamination and milling processes—both of which are time consuming and costly—to produce prototypes before moving ahead to final tooling.

With 3D printing added to the prototyping workflow, the Magirus team has not only dramatically reduced its prototyping costs (from nearly a hundred-thousand euros to just thousands of euros), it has also achieved much faster part development lead times. "It used to take from 3-6 months, depending on the size and capacity of the prototyping workshop, now it's a matter of the printing time on the machine, so just a couple of days," Krämer says.

The time and cost savings afforded to Magirus' prototyping department by 3D printing have also enabled more agile part development, which helps the company to meet the needs of its firefighter clients. In other words, large-scale 3D printing allows Magirus to rapidly manufacture and validate prototypes, which in turn enables it to update and improve its fire engines and firefighting solutions based on customer feedback.

Rapid response for production

While Magirus' main use for its in-house BigRep ONE 3D printer is prototyping, the fire engine manufacturer is also starting to explore the use of the technology for small-series production. In fact, the company's first 3D printed end-use part is now undergoing the final stages of validation for use aboard fire trucks.

The part in question is a window frame for a fire engine crew cab door. The crew cab is a fire truck designed to carry at least nine crew members. As one can imagine, it is important for the firefighters to have as much visibility as possible from the cabin as they approach the fire or emergency scene they have been called to. Magirus was thus asked by its firefighter customers if it could install an additional window into the frame of the crew cab door to improve visibility from inside.

In developing the window, the Magirus team used the BigRep ONE to 3D print a prototype of the frame—a structural element designed to connect the outer shell of the door to its inner side. The quality of the prototype window frame was ultimately so satisfactory that the team decided to forego tooling altogether and 3D print the end-use component. The production part, which measures roughly 800 x 600 x 150 mm, was 3D printed using a higher resolution than the initial prototype and was made from a high-temperature carbon fiber reinforced polymer, HI-TEMP CF.

"Because the volumes are low, we have started pre-series production for the [window frame]," says Harald Fitz, Chief Engineer of Firefighting Standard Vehicles at Magirus. "What we are also doing is testing and validation because the part has to be rigid and withstand the circumstances where firefighters are using their trucks… This is ongoing at the moment, but we are confident that the part will withstand all the testing we are applying." The 3D printed window frame is being tested for vibration, impact, and heat deflection temperature, among other things.

By leveraging 3D printing for the crew cabin window frame, Magirus not only benefited from faster and more cost-effective prototyping, it has translated these benefits to end-use production. Most importantly, it has found a way to address and meet the requests of its customers, who rely on the company's products and systems to save lives.

3d-printer-production-fire-truck

BigRep ONE 3D printer

Vital to Magirus' successful use of 3D printing—both for prototyping and now end-use production—is the BigRep ONE 3D printer. Manufactured by Berlin-based BigRep, the BigRep ONE is a large-format industrial 3D printer that has an install base of over 400 systems globally.

The system is characterized by its massive build volume, totaling one cubic meter, and its compatibility with several polymer filaments, including PLA, TPU, PETG, and HI-TEMP CF, an engineering-grade biopolymer reinforced with carbon fiber. The BigRep ONE also integrates two BigRep Power Extruders with interchangeable nozzle sizes, facilitating multi-material printing or the use of water-soluble supports.

For Magirus, the size and industrial capability of the BigRep ONE were big draws. Not only is the machine suitable for manufacturing the large-scale prototypes the company requires for its fire trucks, but it also can be used to produce several smaller components—such as the window frame—in a single batch. The adjustable 3D printer settings, such as resolution, also allow the company to rapidly manufacture prototypes at a lower resolution and enhance the print quality for end-use parts.

"As you can imagine with the size of our vehicles, the parts [we needed] were getting bigger," says Krämer. "After a final evaluation, we decided to purchase the BigRep ONE. Firefighting vehicles are the ideal product of 3D printing due to the amount of vehicles produced and because high customization and individualization—and even digitalization—require quick and fast solutions."

"I'm quite confident that we could increase the quantity of parts being produced by the BigRep ONE 3D printer," Fitz adds. "Starting from prototyping, and now having the first part produced in a small series, I could really imagine that for special cases or for special parts we could move completely to 3D printing. The BigRep ONE 3D printer is really suitable for that."

In other words, this is just the beginning of production 3D printing for Magirus. 3D printing technology has the potential to open up increasing opportunities for custom and low-volume parts for fire engine manufacturing applications. Who knows, the next Magirus fire truck you see could be fitted with a 3D printed component!

Want to Learn More About Faster Manufacturing of Commercial Vehicles?

Commercial vehicles like refuse collection trucks and fire engines place high demands on their components. Learn how large-format 3D printers give companies the flexibility and versatility to iterate fast, produce faster, and get to market faster, all while reacting to challenging customer requirements on short notice. Don't miss out, watch the webinar now:

IMPROVE TIME TO MARKET AND ENABLE CUSTOMIZATION OF COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

About the author:

Dominik Stürzer <a style="color: #0077b5" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-stuerzer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i class="fab fa-linkedin"></i></a>

Dominik Stürzer

Head of Growth Marketing

Dominik is a mechanical engineer whose passion to share knowledge turned him to content creation. His first 3D prints started in university. Back then the 3D printers were big on the outside and small on the inside. With BigRep the machines are finally big in their possibilities.

3D Printed Life-Size Dinosaur Models

3D Printed Model Life-Size Dinosaur

Imagine walking into a museum and seeing a life sized dinosaur as tall as 15 feet (5 meters tall). The sheer size would impress you. The accuracy and attention to detail would wow you.

But did you ever think about how these life-sized dinosaur models were created? Well CDM:Studio are experts at this. They are a model making company based in Perth Western Australia that specializes in interpretive design and fabrication for museums, architects, designers and builders.

The Challenge

Western Australian Museum came to CDM: Studio for help with an exhibit that would feature life size dinosaurs and other animals. The challenge: create over 110 models in just 9 months. In the past, each dinosaur or animal would have had to been modeled out of clay, which takes a very long time and very skilled sculptures to . And with a timeline of only 9 months, it would not have been possible.

Enter 3D Printing

In order to meet this short deadline, CDM: Studio needed to come up with a way to produce the models faster, with less dependency on humans, who can’t work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The BigRep ONE was the perfect solution to what they needed – large build size and able to work non-stop.

Now thanks to digital modeling using Zbrush, the files were then sent to the BigRep ONE for 3D Printing. The parts were optimized for 3D printing with internal mounting structures since many of the creatures would then be hanging in the museum.

“BigRep ONE is a workhouse and able to make all these models that we couldn’t have done any other way,” said Jason Kongchouy, Studio Manager at CDM: Studio.

Once the models were finished printing – due to the enormous size of the dinosaurs, the printed parts needed to be glued together to create a 1:1 life size scale of the dinosaurs. The average size of the parts were 3 feet (90 cm) long. Next they were post-processed and painted for an authentic, realistic finish.

3D Printed Model of a Life-Sized Dinosaur

Creating Accurate, Realistic Parts

One of the benefits of 3D printing is being able to produce exact replicas from a digital file. For Western Australian Museum, having accurate representations of the dinosaurs was extremely important. Every digital file was approved by scientists and museum staff. So the 3D prints came off the machine that came off the machine needed to match what was approved, and with the BigRep ONE CDM: Studio was able to do that.

“What came off the machine which is really, really important with our business. Where we are trying to get the scientist accuracy correct,” commented Kongchouv.

Future of 3D Printing for Model Makers

As customers expect you to meet shorter and shorter deadlines, 3D printing is becoming an essential tool to meet them. Having the ability to print non-stop and produce accurate models is a big competitive advantage for companies like CDM: Studios.

Kongchouy concluded with, “If you are not integrating 3D printing into your pipeline you are just going to fall behind. The BigRep has shifted our industry forever.”

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

About the author:

Dominik Stürzer <a style="color: #0077b5" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-stuerzer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i class="fab fa-linkedin"></i></a>

Dominik Stürzer

Head of Growth Marketing

Dominik is a mechanical engineer whose passion to share knowledge turned him to content creation. His first 3D prints started in university. Back then the 3D printers were big on the outside and small on the inside. With BigRep the machines are finally big in their possibilities.

Large Metal Casting Patterns Produced 33% Faster

Teignbridge Propellers International is a high-performance, marine engineering components company. Over 40 years old, Teignbridge produces its signature custom-designed and produced propellers, for tugs, luxury yachts, fishing trawlers and ferries.

Although the overall technique is well-established, companies in the industry must compete to preserve their reputation and further their position in the market. Teignbridge does this through delivering top-notch workmanship for a high-quality product, and by constantly innovating and investing in both an improved product and in more efficient production processes. This combination of unquestionable quality with an innovative streak has made the company a world-leading supplier of propellers and stern gear.

3D Printed Metal Casting Pattern Productzion Steps

“ WE PRODUCE HIGH-QUALITY ENGINEERED COMPONENTS. WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY INNOVATE TO RETAIN OUR POSITION AS A LEADING FIRM IN OUR SECTOR.”

Large, Complex Metal Casting Patterns 3D Printed Fast on a BigRep ONE

In 2017, Teignbridge invested in a BigRep ONE large-scale industrial 3D printer for use in propeller production. The BigRep ONE workhorse 3D printer is used in the second stage of the process, to 3D print a full-size replica of the designed propeller to be the positive pattern for the cast mold.

Patterns are produced in 3 steps

  1. Engineers make a CAD model of the part, convert this to a G-code file, and load the file onto the BigRep ONE.
  2. The BigRep ONE 3D prints the pattern. The pattern-maker facilitates this by ensuring the machine has the correct BigRep 3D printer filament loaded.
  3. The pattern is then post-processed with the removal of the support structure, followed by the application of filler and a coat of mold release paint.

The process is straightforward. A typical pattern fits into a volume of 500 mm x 500 mm x 750 mm, meaning the BigRep ONE can comfortably print it in one go. Such patterns of around 4 kg take 40 hours to print, thus can be fully produced, including post-production, within just 48 hours. Short print times come in part from the BigRep ONE’s ability to print structurally sound patterns with hollow interior sections, which brings the added benefit of minimal material use.

large-metal-casting-molds-3d-printed

“IN PRODUCING OUR PROPELLER PATTERNS, CYCLE TIME IS NOW AROUND 33% LESS. TRADITIONALLY IT WOULD TAKE US OVER 3 DAYS TO PRODUCE A PATTERN. NOW IT TAKES LESS THAN 2 WORKING DAYS.”
Ian Moss
CEO, Teignbridge

3d-printing-metal-casting-patterns

“THE SIZE OF THE MACHINE WAS A CRITICAL FACTOR IN SELECTING BIGREP AS OUR 3D PRINTING PARTNER. THE FILAMENT MATERIAL IS CHEAPER, FASTER AND MORE PRACTICAL THAN MATERIALS FOUND ON ALTERNATIVES SUCH AS RESIN 3D PRINTERS.”
Ian Moss
CEO, Teignbridge

Three Key Benefits

Teignbridge’s early adoption of BigRep’s 3D printing technology brings three key benefits, which together add up to a transformed pattern-making process.

  1. REDUCED CYCLE TIME
    Teignbridge now achieves 33% shorter pattern production times. The 3D-printed approach takes just 48 hours, including post-processing. This compares to the three days Teignbridge used to spend producing patterns in wood or polystyrene with a milling machine. Some metal casting firms use traditional hand-production methods which take even longer.
    FASTER DELIVERY TO CUSTOMERS
  2. COST SAVINGS
    Major resource savings come from a 90% reduction in pattern maker labor required. The milling technique required 20 hours of skilled labor in CNC machine operation, section assembly, and post-processing. The 3D-printed method requires a maximum of two hours post-processing labor. The new approach also saves engineer time as one G-code file is required, rather than several.
    INCREASED COSTCOMPETITIVENESS
  3. REDUCED LABOR RELIANCE
    The reduced need for pattern maker labor insures Teignbridge against two kinds of risk. It brings reduced risk of being undercut by low-wage competitors. And, as skilled pattern-makers become scarce in traditional locations, it brings reduced risk of labor shortages which could make project completions impossible.
    INSURANCE AGAINST RISING WAGES & SKILLED LABOR SHORTAGES

It is worth highlighting three key features of the BigRep ONE which enable Teignbridge to get maximum benefit from its switch in production technique. The large format of the ONE delivers maximum time-savings by allowing pattern production in a single print; the low per-kilogram cost of BigRep’s PLA filament contributes significant cost savings; being able to print sound, hollow patterns allows further time and materials costs savings.

metal-casting-with-3d-printer-casting

“OUR TYPICAL PROPELLER PATTERN IS 500 X 500 X 750 mm. FOR THAT REASON, THE SIZE OF THE MACHINE WAS A CRITICAL FACTOR IN SELECTING BIGREP AS OUR 3D PRINTING PARTNER AS IT MEANS WE CAN PRODUCE PATTERNS WITH ONE QUICK AND SIMPLE PRINT.”
Ian Moss
CEO, Teignbridge

A STUDY OF EARLY ADOPTION IN INDUSTRY

Teignbridge has been proactive in introducing BigRep’s large-scale, fast, precise 3D printing technology to its industrial processes. It has done this because it can benefit from faster cycle times and lower costs in its metal
casting of large, complex performance components for its customers. A key factor in deciding which 3D printer to purchase was the large-format factor, as well as BigRep’s range of print materials.

Teignbridge’s proactivity reflects the company’s general approach to maintaining its competitive position, by seeking and embracing opportunities to invest in value-adding technologies. And it reflects its trust in BigRep’s printer technology to reliably provide the kind of precision and performance required by the industry. Given the ingenious heritage, vital function, and exacting standards of the marine industry, this is a strong vote of confidence in BigRep technology.

“ANOTHER PROBLEM THE BIGREP ONE SOLVED WAS THE LACK OF AVAILABLE SKILLED PATTERN MAKERS. THE 3D PRINTING SOLUTION ALSO PROTECTS US AGAINST OVERSEAS COMPETITION FROM LOW-COST ECONOMIES.”
Ian Moss
CEO, Teignbridge

Want to Learn More About How 3D Printing Can Benefit Sand Casting?

Sanding casting is a time-tested, reliable method to produce large metal parts. But as pattern making is becoming a lost art, using 3D printing is a fast, cost effective way to modernize and simplify the first phases of sand casting, particularly when producing complex geometries. Don't miss out, watch the webinar now:

3D PRINTING FOR SAND CASTING

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

LARGE-SCALE INNOVATION. LIMITLESS CREATIVITY.

The BigRep ONE is an award-winning, large-format 3D printer at an accessible price point. With over 500 systems installed worldwide, it's a trusted tool of designers, innovators, and manufacturers alike. With a massive one-cubic-meter build volume, the fast and reliable ONE brings your designs to life in full scale.

Explore the ONE

Local Manufacturing Accelerates with BigRep PRO

The Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is a centralized technology hub that provides academic research and commercial manufacturing services to a vast partner community. Their strategic location in western Massachusetts provides convenient access to companies located in New York, Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey. Affectionately referred to as the BIC, Berkshire Innovation Center is a world-class R&D facility that offers advanced technologies for local manufacturing. Founded in 2016, the BIC has amassed an eclectic collection of simulation softwares, video production capabilities and additive manufacturing technologies that enable the partner community to reinvent what’s possible for their businesses. In 2020, the BIC welcomed the newest addition to its advanced manufacturing capabilities with the BigRep PRO 3D printer. The high demand for larger parts is what justified the initial printer purpose but the ability to optimize materials and functionality is becoming a significant advantage for local manufacturers.

berkshire-innovation-center-bigrep-pro

“Our region is so commercially diverse. It’s our responsibility to understand what technologies will bring the most value to our partner network,” says Steven Longpre, Operations Manager at BIC. “When we presented the BigRep PRO as a potential new addition, our partners were thrilled with the idea.”

BIC members include industrial manufacturers, medical device developers, agricultural specialists and defense suppliers. Gaining access to the BigRep PRO large build platform (1m3) provides immediate benefits for short run production applications and full-scale prototyping.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Dive Technologies, an American veteran-owned small business that produces autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) designed to withstand long operations at oceanic depths, constitutes one printing success with BIC.

“Yes, the ability to print large parts was advantageous for this particular project, but having stronger materials and the freedom to design complex structures is what really drove this project forward,” Longpre says. Dive Technologies printed in several materials, eventually settling on ABS plastic due to the strength characteristics that could withstand the underwater environment. Dive Technologies develops AUV’s that serve a variety of functions so building quick prototypes to scale gives them the ability to iterate faster and customize devices that are designed to solve specific problems.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles - Prototype
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles - Prototype
Commercial AUV, the DIVE-LD, in-water
Commercial AUV, the DIVE-LD, in-water

Agricultural Product Development

One of the major challenges for the Berkshire Innovation Center is to educate the region about the value of advanced manufacturing. Many of the local businesses are familiar with injection molding, CNC machining and other fabrication methods, but are somewhat hesitant to adopt new practices. This is common for any new technology adoption, so BIC addresses this by taking on any project, large or small, with the intention to share the inherent benefits of additive manufacturing. DfAM (design for additive manufacturing) is the practice of designing parts and products that take advantage of AM technology. This includes:

  • Embracing design complexity
  • Lightweighting of parts that retain similar or better strength properties
  • Product simplification, no assembly required

One such example was when the BIC 3D printed a large sled used for agricultural purposes. Typically, this product requires large tooling investments or parts must be welded together for it to function properly. The time it takes to produce this sled with traditional means could be weeks or months. 3D printing on the BigRep PRO took approximately 3.5 days.

agricultural-large-sled-1
agricultural-large-sled-2
agricultural-large-sled-3

Defense Applications 

There are a variety of defense contractors located in the Berkshire region. While the BIC is unable to publicly share details about projects being worked on, there are several applications where members have taken advantage of BigRep PRO's extensive material portfolio in defense manufacturing.

  • Nylon PA 6/66  | This lightweight material from BigRep has excellent strength-to-weight ratios and is ideal for assembly line jigs, fixtures and other production applications.
  • High Temperature Carbon Fiber | High Temp CF has a heat deflection temperature of up to 115C and has increased durability for UV applications, perfect for outdoor product testing or under-the-hood applications.
  • PETG | PETG is one of the most commonly used materials for BigRep. It’s quick to print, reliable and incredibly cost effective making it ideal for low volume production purposes.

“With a more industrial system, we can bridge the gap between software, materials and hardware for true production purposes,” says Longpre. “The BigRep PRO is a robust piece of machinery that is scalable, repeatable and reliable. Something all our partners are interested in.”

Longpre and the BIC team anticipate new opportunities that capitalize on the BigRep PRO’s unique advantages.

Conclusion

The Berkshire Innovation Center is poised to accelerate the innovation and growth of existing companies within their region. Strategically focused on small to medium sized manufacturing companies (SME’s) enables BIC to respond quickly and develop creative solutions with advanced manufacturing. Although the knowledge transfer gap continues to be a challenge for Longpre and his team, they share optimism and excitement about the future. “We don’t want cheap and easy,” says Longpre. “We want the hardest challenges and are prepared to be transparent with our capabilities. Our goal is to improve product performance, test new ideas and find innovative ways to solve problems for our local industrial community.”

The BigRep PRO is one of the premiere advanced manufacturing platforms available at the Berkshire Innovation Center. The BIC is equipped with a variety of 3D printing machines and is capable of tackling any sized project. Longpre and his team consider the BIC to be an industry agnostic facility, so they pride themselves on building a diverse network of partners and collaborators. If you’re interested to learn more about the BIC, we invite you to visit them at https://berkshireinnovationcenter.com/. BIC acquired their BigRep PRO through our partner, Select Additive.

INDUSTRIAL QUALITY MEETS  COST EFFICIENCY.
COMPLEX PARTS IN LARGE SCALE.

The BigRep PRO is a 1 m³ powerhouse 3D printer, built to take you from prototyping to production. It provides a highly scalable solution to manufacture end-use parts, factory tooling or more with high-performance, engineering-grade materials. Compared with other manufacturing and FFF printing solutions, the PRO can produce full-scale, accurate parts faster and at lower production costs.

Explore the PRO

INDUSTRIAL QUALITY MEETS COST EFFICIENCY.
COMPLEX PARTS IN LARGE SCALE.

The BigRep PRO is a 1 m³ powerhouse 3D printer, built to take you from prototyping to production. It provides a highly scalable solution to manufacture end-use parts, factory tooling or more with high-performance, engineering-grade materials. Compared with other manufacturing and FFF printing solutions, the PRO can produce full-scale, accurate parts faster and at lower production costs.

Explore the PRO

Medical 3D Printing Reinvents the Wheelchair – and Orthosis

Medical 3D Printing: Smart Wheelchair

Medical 3D printing applications have dramatically improved accessibility to healthcare devices in recent years.

3D printing has made small, personalized prosthetics infinitely more affordable, accessible, and effective with on-demand personalized manufacturing. But larger medical devices - like wheelchairs and orthosis - have been limited by the small build volumes widely available.

Today, as large-format 3D printing has become increasingly accessible and reliable, the medical industry is making up for lost time. This past year has seen some incredible innovation in medical 3d printing made possible by large-format additive manufacturing with BigRep technology.

Two of BigRep's partners, Phoenix Instinct and 3Dit Medical, have proven especially noteworthy, having created inspiring innovations and earned the support they need to fully realize their life-changing designs.

Medical 3D Printing allows for a smart Wheelchair

Medial 3D Printing: Self Balancing WheelchairThe wheelchair has remained largely unchanged since the 1980s, said Andrew Slorance, CEO of Phoenix Instinct and a wheelchair user himself. “Wheelchair companies have been unable to stop thinking mechanical,” he says. “All the products around us are evolving – becoming smart. It doesn’t make any sense.”

With a vision to reinvent wheelchairs with smart technology, Slorance and Phoenix Instinct entered the Toyota Mobility Ultimate Challenge: a fund supporting the development of innovative mobility solutions worldwide. In the 18-month competition timeline, the company developed the Phoenix i: a revolutionary wheelchair with a smart center of gravity.

The Phoenix i is an ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber wheelchair with a unique smart weight distribution technology. The chair continually adjusts its center of gravity with user movements, making it easier to control in varied movement, terrain, and contexts while decreasing risks like backward falls. Other smart features like lightweight power assist and automatic breaking make inclines easier to traverse and eliminate most need for physical hand breaking.

The company’s BigRep large-format 3D printer made developing the chair in Toyota’s timeline possible, said Slorance. They reiterated constantly, printing full-scale frames to test on site – an accomplishment that simply wouldn’t be possible with traditional workflows. “My last carbon-fiber chair took about 4 years to develop,” he said. “We’re printing full sized wheelchair frames. It’s transformed the ability to develop a product.”

Now that the company has finished initial prototyping, they’re continuing to use their BigRep by 3D printing carbon fiber moulds used in manufacturing the chairs. There’s another 18 months of development to go, says Slorance, but with the million-dollar development fund the company won from the Toyota Mobility Ultimate Challenge and modern industrial resources like their BigRep industrial 3D printer, the future is bright for the Phoenix i.

3D Printing Orthosis: Personalised Scoliosis Braces

Medial 3D Printing - 3D Printing Prosthetics: Scoliosis BraceScoliosis affects approximately 3% of the world population, which means there are about 1 million scoliosis patients in Saudi Arabia, according to Dr. Ahmad Basalah, Vice President of 3Dit Corp.

Halting spinal degradation in scoliosis patients requires individually personalized body braces that are tremendously expensive and difficult to produce. But now 3Dit Medical – 3Dit Corp.’s medical arm – say they’ve found a new solution to not only build braces that halt spinal degradation but also show promising results in spinal correction.

With their BigRep ONE’s cubic-meter build volume, 3Dit Medical has already successfully 3D printed scoliosis body braces that show promising results in spinal correction. The braces are already 50% lighter than their traditional counterparts, cost a fraction, and are created in just three days instead of the previous three weeks. But thanks to the digital nature of additive manufacturing, they also allow for simple adjustments before printing that will apply pressure to precise points and help slowly correct a wearer’s spine.

“The practice of making a conventional scoliosis brace is humiliating,” says Dr. Wesam Alsabban, President of 3Dit Corp., as he described the process of measuring scoliosis patients which, before 3D printers, required them to hang naked from a ceiling while measurements are taken.

With 3Dit Medical’s new additive manufacturing process, patients only require a simple x-ray and 3D scan to gather measurements.

The groundbreaking application won third place in Saudi Arabia’s MIT Enterprise Forum. Excited by the potential, 3Dit Medical says they’ll continue developing the technology and think it will lead to even more valuable products in the future.

How could you change the world with an industrial 3D printer to streamline innovation and production?

INDUSTRIAL QUALITY MEETS  COST EFFICIENCY.
COMPLEX PARTS IN LARGE SCALE.

The BigRep PRO is a 1 m³ powerhouse 3D printer, built to take you from prototyping to production. It provides a highly scalable solution to manufacture end-use parts, factory tooling or more with high-performance, engineering-grade materials. Compared with other manufacturing and FFF printing solutions, the PRO can produce full-scale, accurate parts faster and at lower production costs.

Explore the PRO

How Walter Automobiltechnik Streamlines Quality Assurance with 3D Printed Automotive Production Tools

Integrating 3D printing into the automotive industry’s product development and prototyping workflows is now a widely accepted strategy to reduce costs and lead times. Despite the acceptance, later stages of industrial production remain ripe for additive manufacturing innovation. One recent area of rapid growth is in 3D printed production tools for use in serial production.

3D Printed Production Tools Reduce Workflows

Walter Automobiltechnik (WAT), a Berlin-based automotive manufacturer specializing in the production of vehicle frames, is dramatically improving workflows in their facilities with custom 3D printed tools. The production tools, created with WAT’s BigRep ONE industrial 3D printer, are implemented into quality assurance workflows, reducing time spent on control lines with simple jigs to help semi-automate quality assurance checks. The control systems have cut workflows in half, freeing employee time and reducing order fulfillment time.

“The customer expectation regarding the quality is one thing, the customer expectation regarding the project time to deliver parts is getting shorter and shorter,” said Martin Münch, WAT’s head of engineering. “Here especially, 3D printing and the BigRep ONE helps us a lot to reduce the cycle costs of the project.”

Cutting Costs for Custom Jigs with 3D Printers

By 3D printing jigs for their new control systems, WAT has sidestepped the significant costs traditionally associated with custom industrial tools. Rather than commission a machine shop to manually shape the jigs from aluminum or other metals, WATs BigRep ONE is used in house to innovate their workflows on demand.

“Because I can print one cubic meter, I can produce really large components – which you can see with these jigs,” said André Lenz, an engineer at WAT and the technician responsible for designing and printing useful parts for WAT’s Berlin facility. “If we had made them out of steel or aluminum, for example, it would have been incredibly expensive and above all heavy and made from multiple parts.”

Automotive-Quality-Assurance-Production-Tools-WAT
Automotive-Manufacturing-tools-WAT

Like many companies that add a large-format 3D printer to their roster of industrial equipment, the value for WAT hasn’t ended with their primary application. Lenz has been designing and printing helpful aids around the facility for everything from trays to sheaths for holding tools within easy reach.

 

For WAT, the decision to invest in a BigRep ONE for automotive 3D printing has been game changing. They’ve cut costs and reduced workflow on essential manufacturing processes to help deliver their product at the cost and within the time their customers expect. But quality assurance is just the beginning as WAT continuing to develop more additive manufacturing applications to create more efficient automotive manufacturing processes.

Nikola Motor Invests in a BigRep PRO to Help Lead the Future of Sustainable Heavy-Duty Trucking

Nikola Corporation, a technology disruptor and integrator working to develop innovative energy and transportation solutions, has invested in the BigRep PRO, a large-format FFF additive manufacturing system, to streamline the design and manufacturing processes of their zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station infrastructure.

BigRep, the global leader in large-format additive manufacturing (AM) technology and solutions (FFF segment) is renowned for developing next-generation, German-engineered AM systems like the BigRep PRO. Specializing in industrial solutions for innovative manufacturers like Nikola and advanced AM applications, BigRep and Nikola are an ideal match based on their reputation for delivering innovative technologies.

The BigRep PRO is changing how industry leaders like Nikola consider additive manufacturing.  Integrating AM into design and manufacturing processes opens the door for process improvements, product design optimization and modern operation efficiencies. As with Nikola, who acquired their PRO through California-based reseller Saratech, AM is now able to play a key role in developing the future of freight transport, supported by BigRep’s unique technology and portfolio of high-quality engineering-grade materials – developed through BigRep’s close relationship with BASF.

“At Nikola Corporation, our vision is to become a global leader in zero-emissions transportation – and innovation plays a significant role in making that happen. We selected the BigRep PRO for its large-format build volume, third-party filament compatibility, and state-of-the-art Bosch-Rexroth CNC control systems,” said Technical Operations Manager of Nikola Corporation, Riley Gillman. “The first prints that we ran lasted 17 days. Since then, we have been pretty much running the PRO non-stop to help us print parts and components using its large capacity of printing, high resolution and accuracy throughout the entire process.”

Nikola Motors BigRep PRO Tre Print Left Bumper
Nikola Tre close-up on left bumper

Nikola relies on the BigRep PRO to 3D print assembly, weld, and Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) inspection fixtures, which all require a high level of precision. In addition, the PRO is producing test components for fit checks on the company’s vehicles, and manufacturing some end-use parts.

“We are excited to be working with Nikola Corporation by providing both BigRep industrial 3D printing systems and our expertise in innovative applications,” says Frank Marangell, BigRep CBO and President of BigRep America. “The variety of applications Nikola  is printing illustrates the PRO’s flexibility and high-performance potential in demanding industries like automotive. Nikola has joined a roster of other automotive industry leaders who benefit from our flagship system’s unprecedented speed, precision and reliability that make it the perfect choice for cutting-edge AM applications.”

The BigRep PRO is specially designed for 3D printing both large-format and low-yield production parts required in high-performance applications across the automotive, aerospace and other industries. The BigRep PRO features a build envelope of almost one full cubic meter and is equipped with a state-of-the-art Bosch Rexroth CNC motion control system delivering IoT connectivity to fully integrate with Industry 4.0. To create the perfect balance of speed and resolution, BigRep offers two varieties of extruder for the PRO, the Advanced Capability Extruder (ACE) and the BigRep MXT®, its proprietary Metering Extruder Technology. A large, airtight filament chamber allows for continuous printing with engineering-grade filaments like PA6/66, ABS, ASA, fiber-filled and more. The PRO operates using BigRep’s BLADE slicer software, which provides accurate printing time and material use calculations for optimized productivity, as well as simple tools for easy batch and mirror printing.

A truly industrial 3D printing experience

A large-format 3D printer designed for high productivity in industrial manufacturing environments. It's an additive manufacturing system with the speed and reliability to supercharge your production with high-quality industrial parts.

Learn More

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