Success9

In the Search for Perfection, Every Last Detail Counts

"We were the first company in Switzerland to have a machine like this. We wanted to build our models quickly and easily, and we chose a Dimension 3D printer because it met all our expectations and lay within the price range we had set for ourselves." — Christian Jarisch, Engineer with Nestlé Nespresso

In developing its capsule and coffee machine systems, Nespresso also modernized its development processes. In 2003, the Research and Development department paid a visit to the EuroMold trade show in Frankfurt and subsequently decided to buy a Dimension 3D printer. Christian Jarisch, an engineer with Nestlé Nespresso's R&D department in Lausanne, explains the decision:

Parvus Corp: Cockpit Display Quickly Takes Off

Building model parts with a Dimension 3D Printer helped Parvus reduce the need for experienced CAM engineers and CNC mill production capacity. Product design time was reduced from an estimated five weeks to just one week. The Dimension 3D Printer helped Parvus expand its engineering capacity by making better use of staff and production resources.

With the Dimension 3D Printer Parvus designers avoided a number of productivity bottlenecks and completed modeling approximately 80 percent faster than using CNC milling.

Ease-of-use was the key to Dimension's success with Parvus engineers, according to CEO, Troy Takach.

Success Stories

The Dimension Solution

Lausanne, May 2008 — The secret to the perfect cup of espresso lies in the right mix of air, water and coffee. What seems like child's play to a skilled Italian barista is, in fact, a fine art learned through long experience. However, since few people fill hundreds of tiny cups with the rich, precious brew on a daily basis in their own kitchens, it's hardly surprising that they lack practice, and the taste of their beloved espresso— brewed at home— can vary from one cup to the next.

To solve this problem, innovative engineers at NestlÃ© Nespresso S.A. in Switzerland invented a small capsule over 20 years ago, which can be filled with just the right portion of coffee. With the help of a coffee machine from Turmix, which was invented specifically for the capsules, the idea of the perfect home-brewed espresso was born. Under the leadership of Alfred Yoakim, Nespresso has been continuously improving the coffee capsule and its machines since 1986. Yoakim and his team in Lausanne work together with the Swiss designer Antoine Cahen to develop coffee machines that have revolutionized coffee brewing and drinking and turned the company into the worlds leading supplier of single-serving coffee systems.

Perfection down to the very last detail

Parvus Corporation designs and produces embedded communication, control, and interface electronics for OEMs. To simplify model generation and reduce design time in developing a flat-panel LCD cockpit display for Boeing's 737 (900), Parvus engineers used a Dimension 3D Printer to build model parts.

Nespresso relies on cutting-edge technology in developing its new coffee machines with the Dimension 3D printer.

By 2003, Nespresso engineers had already taken the classic route of outsourcing model making projects to external firms. "This was a very time-consuming process. We sometimes had to wait several weeks for our models and might come up with new ideas, details and changes in the meantime that would make our products even more innovative. However, this also meant that the models under construction were already out of date." 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. This is an advantage that the innovative Nestlé Nespresso company can no longer live without.

"Dimension's front-end processing software is almost invisible. We just export the STL file to the 3D printer. We really spend no time figuring out how to get the CAD model into a real part. The days of waiting for CNC mills and experienced CAM engineers to build models are over. With Dimension, we're knocking out models at the rate of two to three designs per day. Our design pipeline is fatter than ever."

The department has been working continuously with models from the Dimension printer since 2003, creating models nearly every day.

Overcoming inhibitions and boosting creativity

"We try out new ideas more often than ever before. You could say that we cast aside our inhibitions in developing new ideas. Our creativity has grown by leaps and bounds, and we have gotten many ideas and results from the models that we created with the printer." — Christian Jarisch, Engineer with Nestlé Nespresso

The use of ABS plastic makes it possible to produce mechanically stable parts in the Dimension printer. Nespresso conducts function tests on the models, creating brewing units, handles, capsule holders and hot plates for cups as well as other parts of a Nespresso machine as models and testing their functions in a subsequent step.

Testing functions on models

Alfred Yoakim sees design as an important part of everyday life. "The coffee machine is one of the first objects that many people deal with in the morning. It is certainly one of the most frequently used objects in the kitchen." As far as Yoakim is concerned, ongoing product development and improvement will therefore remain important priorities in the future.

Design as part of everyday life

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