3D Printed Production Parts: Solving for QMS is Possible with the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform

Additive manufacturing (AM) was initially viewed as a prototyping technology — a very creative and cost-effective means for product engineers to experiment with various sizes, shapes, and types of materials. It was a great tool for innovation, but most early 3D printers lacked the speed, size, and accuracy required to 3D print production parts at scale.

As the technology matured, 3D printers migrated from the R&D lab to the factory floor. A growing collection of engineering-grade materials made new applications possible, such as 3D printing some jigs and fixtures in-house, as well as printing small quantities of end-use parts previously supplied by third-party vendors.

Yet the promise of AM as a solution for mass production remained beyond reach as the technology was unable to match the consistency and process control offered by other options such as injection molding. Until recently.

With our High Speed Extrusion (HSE) 3D Printing Platform, Essentium has broken the code to deliver a true industrial-grade 3D printing solution that combines the speed, strength, size, and accuracy of traditional manufacturing methods with AM to enable production at scale.

And with the new HSE 280i HT 3D Printer featuring true independent dual head extrusion (IDEX) technology, factories can double their additive manufacturing productivity by printing two identical or unique parts simultaneously.

Achieve Critical Mass With 3D Printed Production Parts

The Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform is faster, bigger, and more accurate than any other extrusion printer on the market. It supports a wide variety of materials to print parts with desired properties in the quantities and with the consistency needed to achieve critical mass.

These advantages afford Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform users greater design freedom and more design cycles in less time — versus other 3D printers as well as other processes such as machining and injection molding.

When it comes to 3D printed production parts, the most important aspect of the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform is that it is engineered to work like a robot, not a 3D printer.

The HSE 3D Printing Platform doesn’t use belts or pulleys like many other 3D printers as piece-to-piece variation can be too high, thus preventing any statistical process control (SPC).

Rather, the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform employs a non-slip, high-torque extrusion system with all linear servo motors allowing log files to document performance. Encoders attached to the print head provide real-time closed-loop feedback to the linear servo motors, delivering the precision and repeatability required for production at scale.

Log files allow operators to track and manage quality on an ongoing basis to maintain a statistically relevant manufacturing capacity across multiple machines.

Solving for QMS is Possible with the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform

As a result, a fleet of Essentium HSE 3D Printers on the factory floor can support quality management system (QMS) initiatives whether the application calls for printing large parts, small parts, assembly jigs and fixtures, or even the molds used to make parts and tools. Its build volume measues 690 x 500 x 600 mm (WxDxH), large enough to fit more than 85% of all global jigs and fixtures.

The Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform is designed for an open ecosystem of materials. That means customers can use any brand of material or create custom filaments with the exact properties required for every application.

Essentium itself offers a wide portfolio of materials with a range of chemical, temperature, impact, and wear resistance properties. Most are non-marring, non-marking, and are easy to print and finish.

From ultra-flexible to rigid, ESD-safe to electrically conducting, all Essentium filaments are optimized for the HSE platform. With its ability to accurately deposit filament at speeds up to 500 mm per second, the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform offers the consistency to be a bridge to production, solving for QMS by printing volumes of parts with little piece-to-piece variation for initial production runs or dummy parts until suppliers come up to speed.

The Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform is also an excellent solution for large manufacturers with production facilities spread across the globe. Once a part is designed, the plans can be shared with remote production sites and printed in volume with the same consistency at several points of need — all while returning control over quality, cost, and innovation to internal designers and decision makers (and saving on freight).

Don’t let the limitations of legacy technologies impact your manufacturing future. Essentium has unlocked the potential for AM. Contact us to request a quote and learn more about how the HSE 3D Printing Platform solves for QMS to enable production at scale.