Industry
Technology
Challenge
Finding a 3D printing technology to reduce costs and streamline product development and the manufacturing process in a new market.
Results
With HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology, Gimatic can now produce functional prototypes while optimizing lead times.
CHALLENGE
Establishing profitability in a new market
Gimatic’s growth over time has led to an increase in its product offerings. With any product there’s always a need to update, advance, and customize. However, improving products can turn into an expensive and time-consuming process. Because of this, Gimatic needed a technology to reduce costs and lead times and streamline its workflows.
Pietro Belleri, Gimatic’s Quality Manager claimed:
"Our Mechatronics business is focused on creating and manufacturing intelligent products that have both mechanical and electronic components.
This line of business is a recent expansion for Gimatic and our current challenge is to profitably establish ourselves in this relatively new market."
Gimatic started to explore how 3D printing technologies could help improve their product development, rapid prototyping and manufacturing process. With that, they began to invest in early stage prototyping, working with a service bureau that utilized stereolithography (SLS) based machines.
"With HP Multi Jet Fusion we can now provide our customers with a complete solution that includes grippers, fingers, and 3D printed parts."
Guerino Rosso, Chief Operations Officer, Gimatic
SOLUTION
3D printing industrial parts for greater design freedom
As Gimatic continued to learn about 3D printing, their imagination of use cases exceeded beyond early stage prototypes. Given the complex nature of their products, they wanted to utilize the design freedom found in the product lifecycle of additive manufacturing. Gimatic’s aim was to produce end-use parts.
"While it was a great way to familiarize ourselves with 3D printing especially with design for additive manufacturing, it didn’t 100% fit our needs. We started looking for a different technology to have in-house. At the end of 2017 we bought an HP Multi Jet Fusion 4200" says Mr. Belleri.
Gimatic’s equipment provider, 3DZ, recommended a new 3D printing technology by HP.
This led to choosing HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology for these reasons:
- Helped improve all stages of their product development by creating physical representations of each product rendering, from conceptual models to functional prototypes.
- Could produce manufacturing aids involving jigs and fixtures for their mass production manufacturing lines. Before 3D printing, when they were using traditional manufacturing , short run applications had either a dedicated machine time or they were outsourced.
- Utilized the design freedom to produce functional components for their current products. Some new structures incorporated helped to improve the ergonomics of their products and safety standards for machine operators.
- The ability to 3D print custom-made components for customers that needed them on-demand. Traditionally, Gimatic would provide an end-of-arm tool for a robot and leave the client to modify end tooling to fit their own production lines.
RESULTS
Pushing the limits of industrial 3D printing
With HP’s Jet Fusion 4200 3D Printer and 3D printing materials, Gimatic can now produce market requests in a more efficient manner.
"From a personal standpoint, the capabilities of Multi Jet Fusion have been a big win for me. In my role as Quality Manager for Gimatic, I’m responsible for the quality of all of our products. Before the HP 3D printer, we couldn’t serve clients requiring one or a few pieces tailored to their needs at a sustainable cost." says Mr. Belleri.
The design freedom enabled by HP’s 3D printing technology helps Gimatic improve the performance of its products.
Although the company still produces a large amount of injection molded parts, every day they’re learning more about how to leverage the geometries and shapes that additive manufacturing makes possible.
3D printing industrial parts also greatly reduces the lead time between the design of components and production of real parts. Within days, Gimatic can deliver functional prototypes to their customers. The speed-to-market advantage that 3D printing offers versus traditional methods has been a big benefit for Gimatic and helps them win more deals.
Interested in knowing more about HP 3D Printing Solutions?
Disclaimers
Gimatic 3D parts and COO images are data courtesy of Gimatic Srl.