The consulting firm TA Engineering takes a giant leap into the future with the acquisition of a 3D printer from PLM Group. TA Engineering will offer 3D printed parts in plastic and rubber-like materials as a service to Swedish and Danish companies.
The small Swedish consulting company within mechanical engineering TA Engineering in the southern Swedish town of Ljungby is betting its future business on 3D printing of a variety of different parts as a third party supplier.
Since its founding three years ago the company has based its business on the production of technical manuals in 15 languages as well as paper and web-based parts. For these tasks TA Engineering is using SOLIDWORKS, SolidWorks Composer and graphic design software from Adobe. In addition, the company has done a variety of business management tasks within especially environmental solutions and working environment.
TA Engineering has recently invested in a 3D Systems Projet 2500Plus 3D printer provided by PLM Group and the printer is the first of this type installed in Sweden. The company’s founder and owner Tibor Albert explains that the business idea behind the investment is that many SMEs in the local area will take the opportunity to get printed 3D parts at TA Engineering.
Huge interest in 3D printing
Tibor Albert emphasizes that he has met great interest in 3D printing among local production companies:
“Many of them see great opportunities in the use of 3D-printed items, but it is often difficult for management to justify the investment in a printer that may only be used five or six times a year. “That is the reason they are very interested in letting a company like ours solve these tasks.”
“We have been looking into 3D printing for quite some time. We consider it to be tomorrow’s primary technology for manufacturing of a wide variety of topics such as spare parts, prototypes and molds. As the first supplier of 3D print in the area we can offer companies to print plastic and rubber parts in two colors,“ Tibor Albert explains, adding:
“They will be able to submit their design files for us in CAD or STL format and based on these files we can quickly print their parts.”
3D-printed prototypes, Jigs and fixtures
Tibor Albert adds that he expects that the customers mainly will be companies needing Jigs, Fixture and rapid prototyping who is currently using traditional machining to manufacture the tools:
“Our 3D printer will enable us to produce fully functioning parts and mechanisms. We will be able to support them with the whole process from sketch to finished product. In this way we can immediately reduce both their development and production costs. For example, we will be able to manufacture Jigs and Fixtures that are both cheaper and with shoter lead times than Jigs and fixtures that is produced with traditional methods. “he says, adding:
“3D printing is a dream technology for any R&D department, because it is possible to produce both vivid physical prototypes and parts and mechanisms that are ready for use in products and production.
3D-printed items in high quality
So far Tibor Albert primarily has discussed 3D printing with small and medium enterprises in the local area, but he expects that TA Engineering in the future will serve customers from Stockholm in the north to the southern part of Sweden and in Denmark:
“We will offer them high quality service in product development and 3D printing. No job is too small or too big for us and our ability to produce different types of parts and mechanisms are almost unlimited,” he says.
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