Footwear manufacturer “Fax” 3D designs
Objet technologies have partnered up with footwear giant Adidas-Salomon AG to help move them towards a more streamlined digital process for sharing their designs between offices across the world.
Adidas-Salomon
AG has a vision which it has been working on for four years, this is to have a
complete digital process that will enable them to create and share 3D data back
and forth between their corporate HQ in Germany and Portland in the USA as well
as all of its corporate units and factories across the world. They recently
took a step closer to completing this goal when they introduced the use of 3D
printing by Objet.
Adidas-Salomon
AG has been using rapid prototyping technologies since 1998 so this isn’t a new
technology for them. The initial use for the technology was for design
verification but they have realised that it can go much further than that.
The Objet
Polyjet technology produces a superior surface finish to other rapid
prototyping techniques (one of the reasons we use it at 3D Creation Lab ;-) ) Vice
President-Product Creation Technologies Gary Pitman explains why they also chose
Objet: “Our research told us that having
a higher-quality RP model would allow us to influence more than just the design
verification phase; we felt we could save significant time and money by using
the RP models as the master when vacuum-casting parts for development review
and eventually, for production tooling.”
“Installing a machine for both headquarters
has put us at a higher level. Objet’s helped change the way we work,” Pitman
states. “Our designers and engineers need to hold and feel the model in their
hands; it’s always important, and with Objet, it’s almost like having a 3D fax
capability.”
Both
companies are now searching for new ways to apply the Polyjet 3D printing
technology to other areas of the business such as the accessories and gear
division which produces equipment for the football sector.
All they
need to do now is see what they can do about the referee’s decisions!
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