3D printer saves time and money
Canadian Plastics
Hasbro Europe, part of toy manufacturer Hasbro Inc., introduces more than 1000 new toys and games to the market each year. At least half of these are designed from scratch at the European headquarters...
Hasbro Europe, part of toy manufacturer Hasbro Inc., introduces more than 1000 new toys and games to the market each year. At least half of these are designed from scratch at the European headquarters in Uxbridge, England.
The Uxbridge site was recently equipped with a ThermoJet solid object printer from 3D Systems. Hasbro design engineer Chris Evenden explains the benefits:
“The ability to actually pick up and examine the component or product greatly enhances understanding across the whole team, enabling any problems or areas for further development to be indentified much sooner in the design engineering process. This also helps us to speed up the development cycle and minimize downstream costs, as any design data inaccuracies can be easily identified through examination of the ThermoJet printer model, and corrected before progressing to final protoytpes and production tooling.”
The ThermoJet printer creates objects using a variation on the technology used in inkjet printing. Instead of putting dots of ink on paper, the Thermojet printer places tiny drops of molten thermopolymer, which almost immediately solidify.