Plastics News Europe - September 2019 - 16

additive manufacturing

3d printed tooling boosts
efficiency and flexibility
Family-owned Hager Group, specialised
in electrical installations, has never shied
away from exploring new developments
at the leading edge of technology. As
3D printing emerges from prototyping
to playing a role in manufacturing, the
company decided to examine its use for
advanced tooling purposes

F

ounded in 1955, Hager Group is
a supplier of solutions and services for electrical installations in
residential, commercial and industrial
buildings. Today, the company remains an independent business,
owned and run by members of the
Hager family, with around 11,400
employees working at 23 production
sites around the globe, including Saverne, France.
At the production site in Saverne,
Hager Group specialises in home automation and energy management
systems. The products, characterised
by complexity and a need for precision, have traditionally been produced using tools manufactured in
aluminium. Not only was this expensive and time consuming, but it also
left the team with very little room for
flexibility or error in the event of sudden design changes.
Seeking to increase responsiveness, reduce production time and
cost, and remain innovative, the R&D
team here decided to investigate the
possibilities of integrating industrial-grade additive manufacturing solutions into its design and production
process.

Final 3D printed cap for use with an electronic
device produced in ABS-M30

3D printed lightweight tools using advanced honeycomb structures

From metal to plastic
The company purchased a Stratasys
FDM-based 3D printer from Stratasys
France Platinum Partner, CADVision,
in order to be able to cost-effectively respond to industrial needs for
advanced tooling. Requiring an
easy-to-operate, safety-compliant
solution that would keep up with production demands, Hager chose the
industrial-level Fortus 380mc 3D printer. This high-performance 3D printer
enables the company to work with
production-grade thermoplastics.
"At Hager Group, we need to create intricate parts - something that is
time-consuming and costly with traditional machining methods, and not
always feasible with just any 3D printing solution," explained Alexandre
Callegher, a mechanical engineer at
Hager Group in Saverne. "By installing
a Fortus 380mc 3D printer in-house,
we now have an advanced system
that provides dependable results
throughout the tooling process."
Previously, when a tool had to be
replaced or manufactured on the
production floor, the long outsourcing process meant potentially disrupting production operations, added cost and slowed productivity.
"We needed a method that could
create complex, functional and lightweight parts efficiently - this is where
FDM-based 3D printing fits perfectly,

16

which is why we have integrated it
across all of our operations here in
Saverne," said Callegher. "The 3D
printed parts have led to a significant
cost reduction compared to machining the part out of aluminium, as well
as a 50% reduction in overall weight.
We estimate that we have seen a ROI
within 18 months."

Lightweight and
cost-efficient
Replacing the aluminium tooling that
was produced on the factory floor
with thermoplastic alternatives came
with several unexpected benefits, the
team found. Designers could react
quickly to design iterations, saving
considerable costs and time. According to the team at Saverne, lead time
can be reduced by as much as three
days, due to the fact that 3D printing
eliminates the drawing stages and
mechanical constraints found in conventional metal manufacturing.
"We now regularly produce customised, low-volume tools within 24
hours of an engineer's request - at a
fraction of the cost and weight of an
aluminium tool," Callegher noted.
"In comparison, when outsourcing
traditionally manufactured tools, the
process took two weeks. Using
high-performance materials, we can
produce tools tailored to specific jobs
with repeatable, predictable quality."

september 2019
Plastics News Europe - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News Europe - September 2019
