DQBD develops 3D printed saddle with Stratasys SAF expertise

German design firm DQBD GmbH is utilizing Stratasys’ Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF) 3D printing expertise to provide personalised biking saddles that boast a better stage of consolation.

With the H350 3D printer, which Stratasys launched in April, DQBD is additively manufacturing a number of of the saddle’s load-bearing components at scale, saving 1000’s of euros in prices and chopping lead occasions from months to days.

The saddle – named SAM (saddle additive manufacturing) – includes a semi-rigid and personalised 3D printed backbone and a 3D thermoformed seat pad, produced based on the person rider’s necessities. Software program mapping of strain factors and weight distribution is getting used to match the geometry of the saddle with the rider’s physique, whereas the composition of inflexible and versatile zones within the saddles backbone guarantee help and adaption is supplied the place wanted. This mixture, DQBD says, returns extra flex than different efficiency oriented saddles and gives increased ranges of consolation, and fewer rider fatigue.

PA11 is the fabric used to provide the saddles due to its excessive ductility, excessive influence and excessive fatigue resistance, whereas influence power, strain and fatigue resistance assessments are carried out to make sure the product meets trade requirements. DQBD believes the 3D printed saddle gives such consolation that biking shorts are pointless, whereas additionally suggesting the applying is an instance of the thought of customized personalisation at scale being a practical advantage of 3D printing.

“We had all the time deliberate for AM to play a pivotal function within the creation of SAM – our biking saddle,” commented DQBD CEO Sebastian Hess. “In truth, we designed the saddle with additive manufacturing in thoughts. In addition to delivering persistently correct, production-grade components at quantity rapidly and affordably, the expertise presents a novel alternative to personalise merchandise in a manner that can not be replicated with conventional strategies. When utilizing the H350, now we have seen value financial savings throughout the whole product improvement strategy of as much as £22,000 towards these of injection moulding strategies, as we’re eliminating tooling prices utterly. We now have additionally shortened our lead occasions to round ten days in comparison with the 3-6 months it may take with conventional manufacturing.”

“We’re seeing a particular development in companies’ readiness for quantity manufacturing of finish use components,” provided Yann Rageul, Head of Manufacturing Enterprise Unit EMEA & Asia at Stratasys. “DQBD is showcasing how the H350 and its SAF expertise cannot solely optimise the whole manufacturing course of with priceless time and price financial savings, but in addition exhibits the deployment of AM for really distinctive and superior designs – prepared for manufacturing at scale. We’re proud to see that the SAM saddle design DQBD created exhibits the developments of additive manufacturing throughout the product improvement cycle – because the product idea was designed round AM from the beginning.”

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