Techniplas, a global design and manufacturing provider of automotive products and services, has announced that as part of its ongoing digital transformation, it has completed the deployment of Sharebot 3D printers at all of its 14 manufacturing facilities worldwide. This deployment across five continents allows Techniplas to expand its use of 3D printing to produce the majority of its manufacturing tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges and robotic arm attachments that are used daily on its assembly lines. The company expects that reducing its dependency on external suppliers will eliminate a significant portion of its assembly line tooling costs and compress its lead times from months to days. This move will enhance overall profitability, agility and competitiveness.
Said Manfred Kwade, chief operating officer, Techniplas, "Based on our experience with Sharebot printers thus far, we expect to significantly reduce our development time and annual assembly line tooling costs in each manufacturing facility over time."
Prior to the deployment of Sharebot 3D printers in its 14 manufacturing facilities, Techniplas relied solely on third-party providers to manufacture its assembly line tools, resulting in lengthy lead times and higher costs.
Today's announcement follows Sharebot's addition to the Techniplas Open Innovation Program in September 2017. Several of Sharebot's latest large-format, industrial 3D printers are already installed at the Techniplas Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center in Ventura, California, where the company is integrating the latest generative, cognitive and additive technologies to accelerate industry 4.0 preparedness. Based on its ongoing development work at Techniplas Digital, the company believes that replacing its conventionally manufactured jigs, fixtures, gauges and robotic arm attachments with additively manufactured aids can reduce its fabrication expenses by as much as 70 percent and compress its delivery times from weeks to days.
With Sharebot's open 3D-printing platform, Techniplas can now easily tailor specific materials — namely high-impact, high-temperature materials — to enhance its capabilities of fabricating customizable manufacturing production tools in-house. The company's 3D-printing solutions transcend the barriers of traditional manufacturing to create products in a faster and more cost-effective manner.
Source: Techniplas
