3D Printing
Nothing communicates design ideas faster than a three-dimensional part or model. With a Dimension 3D Printer, you can bring CAD files and design ideas to life. Test form, fit and function – and as many design iterations as you like with functional ABS and ABSplus parts.
Dimension 3D Printers are priced for office use, so you can create onsite perfect working models directly from your CAD, made of tough ABS plastic that can be sanded, milled, drilled, painted and even electro-plated. Each system operates quietly and there are no noxious fumes or toxic materials that require venting and/or special handling.
Dimension 3D Printers can accelerate time-to-market, by shortening design & development cycle, reduce production costs, by eliminating expensive product revisions late in the development cycle, and create better designs & therefore better products, allowing designers to give shape to their ideas quickly and easily.
One of the advantages of 3D printing is the physical representation of the proposed designs in the form of a 3D model, providing the ability for the customer/manager/client to conceptually visualize the design leading to a more accurate evaluation and improvement of the design. Below are a few more benefits of 3D printing.
| 1200es 3D Printers | Elite 3D Printer | uPrint & uPrint Plus 3D Printers |
- Test Form, Fit & Function
- Proof of Concept
- Cost Reduction
- Only desirable products progress towards the final production stage
- Products get to market faster
- Higher quality products
- Builds strong, durable ABS thermoplastic parts without post treatment
- The system is office friendly, no special installation is necessary
- Building process is environmental conscious
- Vacuum forming
- Marketing tools
- Product mockups
Dimension 3D Printers Brochure
Create a more productive design process with Dimension 3D Printers
Applications and Industries Overview
One printer pays for itself in many ways. Read the leaflet to see how many applications Dimension 3D printers have.
How to Justify the Cost of a Rapid Prototyping System
You know you can save your company money by purchasing a rapid prototyping system. But do you know the best way to justify this capital expense purchase? To convince finance people and upper management, you need to understand what they look for.
3D PRINTERS VS. 3D PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: 10 Distinguishing Factors to Help You Select a System
When planning to purchase an additive manufacturing system, buyers will find capabilities and a price range wider than products from most any industry. Systems can range from several hundred dollars for a hobbyist unit to nearly $1 million for some high-performance systems. It’s no wonder there is confusion with respect to the product segments.
Enhancing the Design Process with 3D Printing
Affordable, quick and easy-to-use 3D printers are changing the face of product design and development, bringing this additive fabrication technology in-house for many designers and manufacturers. Thanks to simple software and advanced technology, it is now just a matter of hours for a computer-aided design (CAD) drawing to become a three-dimensional model.
Preparing ABS Parts for Coating or Plating
Many users of 3D printers have found that, by coating or plating ABS models, they can use the actual model for display and other purposes where production parts would not be feasible. This process is becoming very popular for automotive mock-up applications, such as concept vehicles for shows. Preparing parts to be platedor metalised is very similar to preparing them for painting, and the following finishing procedure should be followed for both processes.
Architecture, Engineering & Construction
Aerospace & Defense
EOIR Technology
Functional models built with ABS plastic from the Dimension 3D Printer proved so tough that EOIR manufactured the final mounts on the 3D printer itself.
Neptec Design Group
Find out how Neptec Design Group helped NASA safely land their space shuttle Endeavour by utilizing a Dimension 3D Printer.
Right on Target: Tiberius Arms Perfects Design With uPrint
The purchase of the uPrint 3D Printer allowed the team to see prototypes from conceptual design to a physical model in a durable ABS plastic before committing to the high cost of producing the product in metal. The result? Better looking, better working parts and improved product appeal.
Go to Aerospace & Defense page
Architecture, Engineering and Construction
Mitekgrupen (Mitek-Group)
Find out how an entire city was printed on a 3D printer.
Paul & Davis Partners
These architects meet multiple deadlines with the help of a 3D printer.
Swiss Alpine Museum
Thanks to Dimension’s 3D technology, the Swiss Alpine Museum can create models of the 3,970-meter (13,000 feet) Eiger or the Matterhorn, the seventh-highest mountain in the Alps at 4,478 meters (14,700 feet), in just a few hours.
West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech)
WVU Tech create a campus model to assist security planning.
Go to Architecture, Engineering and Construction page
Automotive
AMP Research
AMP Research leveraged 3D printing for better communication among its design team and with the customer throughout the design process.
Harman Becker Automotive Systems
In just six months a Dimension 3D Printer enabled the Harman Becker team to be more productive, more competitive and better able to meet production schedules provided by clients – on time, every time.
Mercury Customs
Find out how a Dimension 3D printer helped Mercury Customs expedite its custom part design process so that customer orders could be filled faster.
RENNtech Designs Winning Racer for Mercedes-Benz in Just 35 Days
“Producing strong, yet lightweight, parts in ABS plastic was a big factor for me in the decision to purchase the Dimension 3D Printer,” said Hanna. “We wouldn’t have completed the project with any other technology.”
Dimension 3D Printer Helps Koenigsegg Develop Supercar with a Torque of 920nm
The printer can be used by Koenigsegg for everything from printing engine parts to interior fixtures, for design. It can also be used for tooling, fixtures and studies and on component mountability and serviceability. A key benefit of the Dimension printer is that the prototype parts produced can also be used as working parts in for the end product.
FDM Helps Get Cycling Computer to Market Faster at a Lower Cost
“The time required to make prototypes previously hampered the design process,” said Matt Bauer, President of Pedal Brain. “By the time we received them we often already had a better design idea. Often several iterations were required which meant that it could easily take a month to finalize the design. Another problem with the purchased prototypes is that they were fragile so that whenever we used them on a bicycle we were very concerned about breaking them and interrupting the design process.”
Urbee – The first prototype car to have its entire body built with a 3D Printer and FORTUS machine
Stratasys’ FDM technology build Urbee, first prototype car to have entire body created with an additive process.
MCD Racing Reduces Prototyping Time By 67%
“So we can now prototype nearly every new part to see how it looks, how it fits together with other parts and run it on the track to see how it performs before ordering production tooling.”
Go to Automotive Industry Page
Consumer Goods
Akaishi
The Dimension system allowed Akaishi to increase prototype iterations for its various product lines and improve designs.
Norgaard Designs
Dimension helps Norgaard bring home & office furniture to market faster.
Artic Spas
Artic Spas tests parts printed on a Dimension 3D printer that stand real life pressure.
Culligan
The water treatment products specialist keeps new product development flowing smoothly with a Dimension 3D printer.
Grohe Water Technology AG & Co.
Grohe was able to reduce the time to develop a flushing system by 50 percent.
Bravilor Bonamat
With a Dimension SST, Bravilor Bonamat reduced engineering time and enabled the development of prototypes with more complex design geometries.
Wincor Nixdorf International GmbH
“Customer service makes a difference in our business. Especially within a fast-moving industry such as banking, the ability to come up with immediate solutions is of vital importance, and Dimension helps us accomplish just that.”
Nestlé Nespresso S.A.
With the Dimension 3D printer, they can now carry out the most minor, yet potentially promising change to a detail in just a few hours.
Kirby Morgan Dive Systems Inc.
Kirby Morgan cuts diving equipment design process time in half with Dimension 3D Printer.
Black & Decker
A world leader in DIY products cuts the time to getting new products into stores.
M3 Design
Dimension® SST 3D Printer Empowers M3 Design
Tape Wrangler
Since purchasing a Dimension printer, Tape Wrangler’s growth has more than doubled and projections for 2009 look even more profitable.
Read more
Indian Springs Manufacturing Company, Inc
“We saved Anheuser-Busch nearly 70 percent in production costs alone, and even more importantly, we delivered the part in just 72 hours. This would have taken us at least two to three weeks had we produced the part in aluminum.”
— Shawn Ferguson, president of Indian Springs
FDM Fixture Helps Bring Vacuum Cleaners to Market One Month Faster
Ulmer said the biggest advantage of using FDM is that he can now build the fixture after the design has been finalized but before the first articles are built. He then can use the fixture along with an FDM prototype part to program the CMM machine to inspect the first article. The result is that when he receives the first articles for a new product he has already built FDM fixtures and has already programmed the CMM to inspect each of the first articles. FDM fixtures hold the first articles consistently and perfectly level so no time is lost for investigation and re-measuring.
BlueSky Shaves Three Weeks and $20,000 From Product Development Timeline
A prime example of cost and time savings, the Mount‘n Mover was BlueSky’s first Dimension project. After having spent $23,000 on outsourcing production of three metal prototypes, Goodwin learned she could print eight ABS prototypes in-house using the Dimension 3D Printer for just $3,000, while slashing production time by three weeks.
Mothering Invention with 3D Printing
From concept to market, Enventys builds innovative consumer products with Dimension’s FDM technology.
FDM Models Reduce Time to Market for New Spoonable Zero-Calorie Sweetener
Silgan built FDM prototypes of the 10 design concepts over a 48-hour period at a cost of $300 for each. “FDM takes the guesswork out of our design process by allowing customers to evaluate a three-dimensional model,” said Stephen Kocis, Creative Design Services Manager for Silgan Plastics.
Education
Benilde-St. Margaret’s School
3D printing has given the students of Benilde-St. Margaret’s School the opportunity to shift the emphasis for discovery back onto the student and experiment with their design concepts and test their engineering visions, allowing the students to truly understand why a part worked or why it didn’t.
Bishop Reding Secondary School
With a Dimension 3D printer, Bishop Reding students can design their parts in a virtual 3D environment (with industry-standard 3D software as such as ArtCam) to exact specifications, print the prototype, and if necessary, re-engineer the design, re-print and continue robot construction with very little down time.
Bishop Strachan School
“The opportunity for the girls to produce working models of their projects was imperative. In the end, other systems lacked Dimension’s dynamic capabilities. Its impeccably clean process and power to produce complex shapes made Dimension our obvious choice.” – Steadman
Cornell University
With the Dimension 3D printer teachers can step beyond the virtual barriers and reproduce accurate historical kinematic models as tools for both teaching and artifact conservancy.
East Tennessee State University (ETSU)
ETSU utilize the Dimension 3D printer to design and test everything from multi-part molds for pouring simulated organs to fabricating structural members for creating a surgical simulator system.
North Carolina State University (NCSU)
The Dimension 3D printer saves NCSU’s Industrial Design’s students time, while also allowing them to produce poseable action figures cost effectively.
New England Institute of Technology (NEIT)
NEIT finds a better way to teach and motivate freshmen engineering students.
Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC)
With a Dimension 3D Printer, students gain firsthand experience testing form, fit and function of design concepts.
Project Lead the Way (PLTW)
This innovative Colorado program inspires future engineers with hands-on model making using a Dimension 3D printer.
Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC)
Students can view ‘hands-on’ prototypes hours within their completed CAD design.
Royal Military College
Students redesign the hull for a naval vessel with the help of a Dimension 3D printer.
Edina Public Schools
Peter Grimm starts the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) partnership at Southview.
University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
UCSF finds novel, unexpected uses for the uPrint 3D printer.
University of Texas-Dallas
The Dimension 3D printer is used to accelerate important research and provides the freedom to think outside of the box.
West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech)
WVU Tech create a campus model to assist security planning.
RIT Engineering Student Raves About 3D Printing
Beyond application in his Statics course, Manchester sees 3D printing capabilities supporting cross-disciplinary needs at RIT, from math professors to art students. “Dimension makes strong, solid parts, which is essential for producing any prototype, whether it’s for a fine arts student, a math teacher or our student-run Baja racing team.”
STARBASE and Dimension Rocket Elementary Students’ Design Skills to New Heights
Instructor Christina Johnson, now in her eighth year with the program, has her students designing their own model rocket fins. “They first learn about the science behind the fins and test different rocket parts throughout the week using the wind tunnel and air rockets,” said Johnson.
3D Printing Engages Engineering Students Through Racecar Design Derby Competition
The competition is designed to test students’ ability to conceptualize a model car design; produce a virtual 3D model using constraint-based modeling software; configure each design to accommodate standard parts, meet size, weight and track dimension specifications; manufacture a car using the Dimension 3D Printer and then race it against others.
High Tech./Electronics
Parvus Corporation
With the Dimension 3D Printer, Parvus designers avoided a number of productivity bottlenecks and completed modeling approximately 80 percent faster than using CNC milling.
Go to High Tech./Electronics page
Industrial Equipment
Blackmer Revamps Product Design Process with 3D Printing
After bringing the 3D printer on board, the product engineering staff immediately saw results – its design process was changing for the better.
QTRCO Reduces New Product Demonstration Cost by 78%
QTRCO did a cost justification study that concluded that Dimension BST 3D printers would pay for themselves quickly by enabling the company to sell more by showing its products to a much larger number of potential customers. The company runs the 3D printer nearly continuously to make functional models of its F-Series actuators in two different sizes.
BlueSky Shaves Three Weeks and $20,000 From Product Development Timeline
A prime example of cost and time savings, the Mount‘n Mover was BlueSky’s first Dimension project. After having spent $23,000 on outsourcing production of three metal prototypes, Goodwin learned she could print eight ABS prototypes in-house using the Dimension 3D Printer for just $3,000, while slashing production time by three weeks.
Go to Industrial Equipment page
Medical
Altimate Medical Stands Up to the Service Bureaus
“A model that cost $1,000 and took three weeks to get from a service bureau can now be made internally for around $100.” — Gabe Routh, Product Development Manager
OxySure Improves Design Process With Dimension
Since the introduction of the Dimension system into OxySure’s design process, Steve Dunford, senior engineer, estimates that the cost per part produced, including overhead, is at least 50 percent less than it was when the company relied on the service bureau.
Molds & Dies
Akaishi
The Dimension system allowed Akaishi to increase prototype iterations for its various product lines and improve designs.
FDM Fixture Helps Bring Vacuum Cleaners to Market One Month Faster
Ulmer said the biggest advantage of using FDM is that he can now build the fixture after the design has been finalized but before the first articles are built. He then can use the fixture along with an FDM prototype part to program the CMM machine to inspect the first article. The result is that when he receives the first articles for a new product he has already built FDM fixtures and has already programmed the CMM to inspect each of the first articles. FDM fixtures hold the first articles consistently and perfectly level so no time is lost for investigation and re-measuring.
61-Year-Old Company Re-Invents Itself With FDM
“We save in excess of $150,000 per year with FDM. I can’t image not having this technology in a manufacturing setting. It is as critical to our business as e-mail.” – Matt Hlavin, President, Thogus Products
OxySure Improves Design Process With Dimension
Since the introduction of the Dimension system into OxySure’s design process, Steve Dunford, senior engineer, estimates that the cost per part produced, including overhead, is at least 50 percent less than it was when the company relied on the service bureau.
Oil & Gas
Blackmer Revamps Product Design Process with 3D Printing
After bringing the 3D printer on board, the product engineering staff immediately saw results – its design process was changing for the better.
QTRCO Reduces New Product Demonstration Cost by 78%
QTRCO did a cost justification study that concluded that Dimension BST 3D printers would pay for themselves quickly by enabling the company to sell more by showing its products to a much larger number of potential customers. The company runs the 3D printer nearly continuously to make functional models of its F-Series actuators in two different sizes.
Wood Group Pressure Control Streamlines Sales Process
In less than three months, Wood Group was able to develop functional models in-house for more than 100 components, a feat that would have cost thousands of dollars and taken much longer using outside service pro¬viders and less advanced technology.