3D Printer Brings Concepts to Life at Norlux

From the first minute our Stratays uPrint SE Plus 3D printer arrived in early June, the Norlux team of engineers immediately put it to good use. Having the ability to quickly fabricate and validate various product designs while trimming down prototype lead times from weeks to hours was critical for our business as well as our customers. The 3D printer works seamlessly with popular CAD software, translating complex designs into being before your very eyes. Adding this technology to our engineering capabilities was not only important to offer customers but it also has served internal customers as well. We’re very excited to have this new tool in our arsenal and below we'll illustrate some examples of how we’ve employed our 3D printing capabilities thus far.

Delighting the customer:
3D printing allows us to quickly produce product designs for validation or to identify potential design issues, otherwise known as “rapid prototyping”. By authenticating concepts early in the development process, customers can get product to market faster and at a lower cost. Below are two examples of 3D printed parts used by the engineering department to verify concepts and improvements for our customers.

Use in manufacturing:
Manufacturing has accounted for the largest use of our 3D printer to date. 3D printing technology has enabled Norlux engineers to model and print fixtures in the same day. The shortened conceptualization to actualization window allows for improved product quality and shorter lead times. Rapid fixture creation also improves employee morale by reducing fatigue and stress. Below is an example of fixture that went from concept to production in mere days.

 

 

 

Use internally:
When Norlux acquired our 3D printer, engineers immediately began thinking of ways to fully utilize the technology. In only a month we’ve collectively imagined many creative ways of using 3D printed parts here internally. One example involved fabricating a replacement part for one of our solder screen printers. These parts routinely fail and cost Norlux $50 to replace. Now, rather than purchasing a replacement when a failure occurred, we found that 3D printing the part at a fraction of the cost worked just as well.

Another example of internal usage involved the initial setup of Norlux’s new 2 meter integrating sphere. We needed a way to route wires and sensors into the sphere. Openings were available, but there was no elegant way to house the necessary wires and sensors. We decided to 3D print the adapters that were needed to house the sensors and route the wires into the sphere.

 

 

With our new 3D printing capabilities, the sky is the limit. This is just another tool we offer our customers to help create the finest LED based products in the market today. Please contact us today to learn how our 3D printing capabilities can help with your product's design.