Before and After SLA Printing : Comparison
Cost reduction in manufacturing
Lead times reduced by days
Problem
Pankl Racing Systems is a company which manufactures engine and drivetrain parts for racing cars, high performance vehicles and even the aerospace industry. Recently, Pankl Racing Systems opened a manufacturing facility in Kapfenberg, Austria and has begun utilising this €36 million factory to manufacture gearbox assemblies.
The printing of gearbox assemblies is an incredibly intricate process, with steel parts going through various stages of machining, heating and stress relief before being verified. For each of these stages, a custom jig is required for each individual gear. These jigs are usually machined out of metal, however this method of manufacturing is incredibly cost and time ineffective.
Solution
Through the introduction of 2 Formlabs Stereolithography (SLA) printers into their racing division, Pankl are now able to fabricate custom jigs in half the time and cost of using traditional methods such as machining. After switching to 3D printing, the team found that they were no longer under the time constraints that came with outsourced manufacturing – instead, they were able to then work on their own terms, with shorter lead times on production and more efficient workflow overall. Their design process was also made more simple, with 3D printing providing them with the ability to design their jigs into any shape with holes, curves and chamfers being printed with ease. When before this process will have taken days and several times the cost, Pankl now print each jig in 5-9.5 hours at only €40 for simple parts and €300 for more complex parts. Overall, Pankl have found themselves saving upwards of €150,000 in production costs.
