Success6

Culligan Brings Out the Best in Water

"I wouldn't trade in our Dimension® 3D printer for anything. It's a tool we use to showcase our capabilities when our dealers and resellers come into the office for a tour. They are always very impressed."
— Steve Reif, Director of Research and Development, Culligan

Dimension 3D printing can help you quickly fine tune designs and cut weeks — even months — from your development schedule. Now you can test form, fit and function and explore as many design iterations as you like —over your network, right from your desktop.

An essential tool for everyone on the design team.

"We primarily use the printer to verify form and fit of our product designs, speeding up the product development cycle. In addition, we've also been making parts with the printer that we put into use. We'll piece together a sample product using the ABS plastic parts, and actually run water through the prototype to verify function," said Reif.

"Our experience with outside service providers was mixed," said Steve Reif, director of research and development engineering for Culligan. "It sometimes took several days or weeks to receive a part, slowing down our product development and design verification processes. We needed more immediate results than these companies could provide, and at a much lower cost."

EOIR: Test Parts That Take Real Life Pressure

EOIR's subcontractor's designs for the mount failed performance tests. EOIR found itself up against a tight budget and contract deadline with no deliverable solution.

Using Solid Edge® CAD software and a Dimension 3D Printer, EOIR was able to quickly evaluate models of alternative designs. Sturdy ABS parts generated by Dimension proved tough enough to test directly on the armored vehicles without

"If we had contracted with a separate machine shop to make these parts, not only would we not have made the schedule, but we wouldn't have a stay-behind piece of equipment that could continue to make money for us on future projects."

EOIR Technology was contracted to create a camera and mount for gun sights on M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles for the Mississippi National Guard.

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. This not only saved time, it dramatically reduced part cost. Manufacturing costs for these components would have exceeded $100,000. For less than $40,000, EOIR acquired a CAD software package, Dimension 3D Printer, and ABS modeling materials, and it produced the 40 camera mounts internally.

EOIR Technology project manager John Moulton notes,

Success Stories

Culligan knows the science of water. Since 1936, Culligan has continually developed new technologies to treat hard water and rid water of contaminants. Culligan's high-quality water treatment products have been perfected through research and development, and are used by homes and businesses worldwide.

The Dimension Solution

The Culligan team traditionally had outsourced its design files to several service providers to develop parts, allowing them to verify engineering design. But this

process proved slow and costly. The team also frequently received requests from the Culligan marketing group to generate prototypes that could be used to show the company's franchisees and dealer network potential product ideas. Due to the time and cost involved in outsourcing, Culligan lost a measure of flexibility in communicating with its sales channels.

The Dimension Solution

Culligan selected a Dimension BST 3D Printer, which is a networked desktop modeling system that builds functional 3D models with durable ABS plastic from the bottom up, one layer at a time. Reif and his team have realized tremendous cost savings with the printer. In one instance, the team was able to quickly identify potential

interference issues with several product parts, a task not always accomplished simply by examining the 3D CAD file.

having to go through a costly, time-consuming process of machining them in aircraft-grade aluminum.

Tekpro Provide Solutions That:

REDUCE

TIme to Market

LOWER

Product Development Costs

Manufacturing Costs

LOWER

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Tel: (909) 829.4950

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