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3D printing cut auto-tuning costs by half


Source: facebook.com

Company Crazy Grandpa Garage converts standard cars into unique. The company provides a full range of services, from the design of parts to their production.




Source: facebook.com

Crazy Grandpa customers pay particular attention to improving the technical characteristics and appearance of their cars, mostly sports cars.

To meet demand, Crazy Grandpa's Garage prints exclusive spoilers, side skirts, bumpers and more on Raise3D 3D printers .


Employees Crazy Grandpa Garage imposes a carbon fiber sheet on the mold of a car spoiler. Source: raise3D.com

Until the company appeared 3D-printers, the manufacture of unique high-quality parts was a complex process requiring the painstaking work of a large team of qualified specialists. I had to make prototypes of each part, which increased costs and manufacturing time.

3D printing helped Crazy Grandpa Garage:

  1. Exclude the prototyping step and go directly to casting using 3D printing forms;
  2. Automate the manufacturing processes of molds using 3D printers, significantly reduce labor costs;
  3. To guarantee the quality and reliability of accurate computer-simulated parts;
  4. Reduce production costs by 50%;
  5. Increase reliability of parts;
  6. Reduce the deadlines by 83%.

Parts manufacturing process


The owner and chief designer of the company, which everyone calls Big Bear, begins work on a custom part with what it scans and measures the car. Using computer-aided design software, he creates drawings of the part and the mold for it, taking into account the geometry of a particular car, so that the part fits perfectly.


Garage and office with Raise3D N2 printers (upper right glass cabinet). Source: raise3D.com Raise3D N2 and Raise3D N2 Plus


3D printers * print molds. Source: raise3D.com

* updated versions of these 3D printers are currently released: Raise3D Pro2 3D Printer and Raise3D Pro2 Plus 3D Printer

Features of Raise3D Pro2 3D Printer


Source: top3dshop.ru

There are many orders from customers for the manufacture of exterior parts for cars. Elements such as an almost two-meter spoiler are too large to print as a whole. Using ideaMaker, Big Bear can split a model into 7–8 interconnected parts and transfer print jobs to N2 and N2 Plus 3D printers. Due to the fact that printing takes place simultaneously on several printers, the creation time of each product is significantly reduced.


3D-printed fragments of the mold. Source: raise3D.com


After all the individual parts of the form are printed, they are collected and putty to give the final smoothness. Molds are printed with protrusions and recesses for connecting the mold elements to each other and so that the carbon fiber sheet does not slip during the casting. Then the parts are covered with layers of resin and carbon fiber. Resin and carbon fiber give high strength combined with lightness.


The collected fragments of the mold are coated on the inside with epoxy resin. Source: raise3D.com

Problems before the advent of 3D printers


Previously, a firm needed personnel with special skills for manufacturing products. Each detail required painstaking handwork and a long manufacturing time.

Since the model was created without the help of digital methods, it suited the car approximately, for the fit it was necessary to make a prototype. According to measurements made by Big Bear and technical specifications, the workers manually prototyped the necessary part. Prototypes were carved from wood or cast from fiberglass. The prototype was tested and reworked until it corresponded to the desired design. After the final refinement of the prototype, a mold was made using it, then a carbon fiber model was created around the resulting mold.

Creating parts in this way requires a large number of highly skilled workers. Since the design, fitting and final production of the part depends on the skills of people, many complex designs were sometimes impossible to do. In addition, leaving a skilled worker from a firm significantly reduced productivity.


Assembled mold for spoiler coated with resin and carbon fiber. Source: raise3D.com

Problem solving


Using Raise3D 3D printers and ideaMaker, Crazy Grandpa Garage was able to automate the process of creating custom auto parts. Creating 3D models allows you to design parts of any complexity. 3D-printed parts are very accurate, errors that happened during manual work are now excluded. In addition, the production time of the ordered products was reduced.

Thanks to the solid printing area of ​​Raise3D printers, Crazy Grandpa Garage can produce larger parts than many other widespread desktop printers. Reliability of the press, the large size of the working camera, the possibilities of the ideaMaker program and work with the touch screen increase efficiency and minimize labor costs.

The cost of production decreased by 50%, the reliability of the structure increased significantly. Parts now turn out very well fitted to the car.

Big Bear believes Raise3D printers are truly reliable and easy to use. He plans to expand the printer fleet to meet customer needs.

If you increase the number of 3D printers to 12, the company will reduce production time from 30 days, which were required for manual work, to 5.

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