To us, the Fuse One really stood out.
It was the cost of the materials,
It was the cost of the 3D print,
but not only as a single print,
but actually in the
in the sense of a small batch
production, was probably
the most competitive option.
Simple Design Works is an end
to end product
design house,
and the mission of the business
is to help businesses grow through
meaningful, commercially
viable innovation.
The team is made out of industrial
designers, product designers
and design engineers.
3D printing plays a big role for us,
not only in the initial early stages
where we have to prototype
and test different options,
but we've always been fascinated
as a company
in that space
between prototyping and mass production,
and we've seen a lot of inefficiency
in that space in the sense of
certain companies
would be forced
to actually invest in
soft tooling or commit
significant amount of their budgets
to tooling in order to be able to test
and just get some feedback
from the market.
And this isn't great because you
you have to go back,
you have to
make changes to the tooling,
There’s lead times,
there's costs involved,
which is where the
the new sintering technology
was brilliant from our point of view
to be able to take
a product and produce
a really cost effective batch of prints
on a very short lead time
without committing to tooling
or without necessarily
being restricted to the criteria
you have to kind of satisfy
when it is designing an injection moulding.
That's a great opportunity.
It gives you the option to manage
risks and budgets a lot better
when you design your product.
It gives you the flexibility
to introduce changes,
to bring the lead time down
and just take that fail fast approach
and refine your proposition
as quickly as you can.
We see a lot of clients who move away
from traditional manufacturing methods
and they consider
designing for 3D printing,
and the reason could be different,
It could be down to volumes
and minimising
tooling costs,
or it could be to do with the ability
of taking market feedback
and making changes to design quickly.
We've seen examples
where the volumes would be low,
so you would have seven
or eight different plastic components,
but you would
sell, let's say a thousand units a year
and you can't really justify
the tooling cost.
So a lot of companies
would design
the internal structure of a product
using 3D printing methods,
you know, having the ability
to print in Nylon 12,
to create
a structurally sound component
with the properties
not far off an injection moulding
without the tooling costs
being able to produce small batches
rather than freezing
a lot of money in stock.
We also see
a lot of production opportunities
to actually be impactful with
this technology specifically.
If we take the latest Fuse
One printer for example,
and the print in place option
where we can produce
moving components
and fully build assemblies
as a single print
and deliver
those, helps us actually produce
assembly fixtures, quality control
fixtures, measuring fixtures.
We've looked at all the alternatives
and we carefully studied
the different manufacturing methods
and the pros and cons, and to us
The Fuse One really stood out.
It was the cost of the materials,
It was the cost of the 3D print,
but not only as a single print,
but actually in the
in the sense
of a small batch production
was probably
the most competitive option.
The structural integrity
of the components
was really, really good.
And there was a good
variety of materials
we can play with, but also as a company
for us to be impactful
and reduce the cost
of those
initial trials and help clients
transition into the bigger volumes.
The fact that
the amount of manual labour was reduced
significantly was a big factor.
We no longer had to apply
our hourly rate finished components.
The process was very quick
and it allowed us to be
a lot more flexible
when it comes to different type
of applications, different industries
and support our clients
at a very low cost.
So we've seen companies that
actually design with the mindset
of 3D printing certain parts,
so we could for example,
have a nice glossy external housing.
But the internals,
whether this is
the chassis of a product
or whether this is fixing
brackets or hinge mechanism,
it just gives us the opportunity
to build a lot more convenience and
build features
that are normally difficult to mould,
introduce cable
rooting systems
to hinges or fixing points for sensors
and so on.
It just gives that flexibility,
especially when the volumes aren’t there,
to be a little bit
more creative with the design
and look at how you
can be more impactful
not only with the product
and the function,
but actually
look at what service departments do,
what production lines do,
how we can streamline that process
and remove the costs further.
So the impact has been more significant
than we expected,
and we've certainly created
a lot of appetite for this service
and a lot of food for
thought of how we can
optimise things further.
As a product design house,
we live in a very fast
paced environment
and we're having to adapt to
market changes
fairly quickly
in order to help our clients
remain competitive.
So what's really important to us
is having a dynamic partner
with industry
leading levels of expertise.
We need someone who would come
and understand who
we are as a business,
understand the opportunities
for us to deliver more value
and give the right advice.
Whether this is a piece of equipment,
whether this is providing consumables,
whether this is providing the hardware,
and we've had this relationship
with Neil
and Solid Print3D
and Solid Solutions
right from the beginning.
They're extremely personal,
they feel like a part of the team.
We've shared the vision
for the business
with them on a regular basis,
and they gave us the right advice
of how we can deliver that vision.
So we're very grateful
for the expertise
and the help
and look forward to working
with them in the future.