VHM Fonderie Employs Stratasys 3D Printing Across Various Production Processes to Speed up Customer Turnaround Times and Improve Capacity
finance.yahoo.com
VHM Fonderie (formerly Heinrich Fonderie), which specializes in the production of various types of industrial iron castings using the traditional sand casting process, utilizes its Stratasys Connex Multi-material 3D Printer across a broad spectrum of applications throughout product development. This includes everything from the production of functional prototypes and master models for sand casting, to manufacturing tools, as well as the 3D printing of spare production parts for certain tooling machines.
For complex sand casting applications in particular, the company is using Stratasys’ advanced simulated polypropylene material, Rigur, to produce 3D printed models that are subsequently used to make sand molds.
“To manufacture an object using the sand casting process, we need to first produce a master model of the specific part,” explains Laurent Poux, Industrial Director, VHM Group. “This is then used to make a mold, from which the desired object itself is then manufactured. In the context of the end-to-end manufacturing workflow, the level of time-saving enjoyed with 3D printing isn’t merely improvement or progression – it’s transformational.
“With 3D printing, we save about a month when it comes to producing the various models used to create our molds. This enables us to deliver orders for our customers incredibly quickly, which has in turn improved our capacity,” he adds. |
