No more inventories thanks to industrial 3D printing

Inventories cost money. But production downtime because a machine breaks down and the replacement part is not available costs much more money.

So machine builders prefer to keep parts in stock. Unjustified, because with the new generation of industrial 3D printers, on-demand production is becoming a reality. Can this also replace your parts?

Spare parts costs are not just included in the initial production costs of each part. Maintaining inventory also costs money. And some of the inventory may never be used. The latter also results in material waste. Research therefore quickly mentions an annual cost percentage for maintaining spare parts of several tens of percent of the value of the stock. It is not only the costs that weigh heavily; companies are increasingly faced with pressure to operate more sustainably. The European Commission is therefore encouraging digitization of stocks.

3D printing can be an alternative

in a number of cases, 3D printing can be a realistic alternative to warehouses full of replacement parts. If a validated 3D model is available, the part can be directly 3D printed. Depending on the technology used, the quantities and the available 3D printers, the parts are usually available within one or a few days. Because 3D printing does not require tools, such as molds and dies, the batch size actually has no influence on the costs per part. In other words, a machine builder can produce one part, for example a cover plate or a support for a machine, at the same cost as ten or a hundred parts.

High-quality plastic parts

The requirement is that the parts meet the quality. Stratasys offers with the new SAF H350 printer is an industrial AM system with which high-quality plastic parts are printed in 3D, the properties of which are comparable to injection molded parts and in certain cases even aluminum parts. The material, High Yield PA11, is derived from 100% renewable, sustainably grown raw materials. With the patented SAF powder bed printing technology, the material is processed into industrial parts, directly from the 3D CAD model. What is special about this printing technology is that heat build-up is evenly distributed over the entire powder bed. There are therefore no temperature differences between the center and the sides of the bed. This means that the dimensional accuracy of the printed parts is consistently good, regardless of the position. This makes the Stratasys H350 printer reliable for the on-demand production of precise machine parts. Applications include end parts, such as control consoles, brackets, cover plates and other machine parts and even advanced components, such as hinges, gear assemblies and clips, as well as durable housings. Parts that are often still in stock, but with a bearing total cost of ownership (TCO) on demand can be printed.

Our AM experts are happy to show you how Stratasys industrial 3D printers help digitize inventories.