When Nicolas and his colleagues started exploring 3D printing, they could also draw on the experience of design and development teams. However, to apply additive manufacturing to production-line tools, they must design functional components that can be used in real-world production environments.
As the Samsonite tooling team worked with iMaterialise, they learned how to think differently when designing parts, deepening their understanding of the design freedom, and the specific design rules of 3D printing. For Nicolas, it helped him build a better relationship with 3D printing services.
“Inside Samsonite, we have a very thorough understanding of the possibilities of 3D design,” says Nicolas.
“In this way, we can reduce the number of components in the production line, add new functions and make components that are simply not possible with traditional methods. Now, in most cases, when we send design documents to iMaterialise, the files can be sent directly to the machine for printing, whereas in the past, they had to modify them. This process has become very efficient, means that iMaterialise can focus on helping us address even more specific challenges in design.” — Nicolas De Vogelaere, mold engineer.
Why not invest in in-house 3D printing facilities?
The efficiency of this process is very important. The design, prototyping, and production teams need an average of 100 to 150 parts per week to reach a given fast turnaround time. Given the demand, why isn’t Samsonite ready to invest an in-house 3D printing facilities? For Vivien, the answer lies not only in convenience but also in competitive advantages.
“Additive manufacturing is still evolving at an amazing rate and we want to retain access to the most cutting-edge processes and materials,” she said. We know that iMaterialise is at the forefront of the 3D printing industry, increasing the number and variety of printers and developing new processes and software. For our various 3D printing applications, we want to always use the best technology and methods. If we buy the machines ourselves, we will be limited by the internal process flow and bear the associated maintenance and labor costs. At the moment, it is not an attractive option for us.”
“When we take full advantage of the possibilities of 3D printing, our products, our working process as well as our customers, will obtain max benefits. Our partnership with iMaterialise makes this possible. We get the latest design ideas, best practices, and innovations.”
