DQBD develops 3D printed saddle with Stratasys SAF expertise

German design firm DQBD GmbH is utilizing Stratasys’ Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF) 3D printing expertise to supply personalised biking saddles that boast the next stage of consolation.

With the H350 3D printer, which Stratasys launched in April, DQBD is additively manufacturing a number of of the saddle’s load-bearing components at scale, saving hundreds of euros in prices and slicing lead instances from months to days.

The saddle – named SAM (saddle additive manufacturing) – includes a semi-rigid and personalised 3D printed backbone and a 3D thermoformed seat pad, produced based on the person rider’s necessities. Software program mapping of stress factors and weight distribution is getting used to match the geometry of the saddle with the rider’s physique, whereas the composition of inflexible and versatile zones within the saddles backbone guarantee assist and adaption is offered the place wanted. This mixture, DQBD says, returns extra flex than different efficiency oriented saddles and offers larger ranges of consolation, and fewer rider fatigue.

PA11 is the fabric used to supply the saddles due to its excessive ductility, excessive affect and excessive fatigue resistance, whereas affect energy, stress and fatigue resistance checks are carried out to make sure the product meets trade requirements. DQBD believes the 3D printed saddle offers such consolation that biking shorts are pointless, whereas additionally suggesting the applying is an instance of the thought of customized personalisation at scale being a practical advantage of 3D printing.

“We had at all times deliberate for AM to play a pivotal function within the creation of SAM – our biking saddle,” commented DQBD CEO Sebastian Hess. “In truth, we designed the saddle with additive manufacturing in thoughts. In addition to delivering constantly correct, production-grade components at quantity shortly and affordably, the expertise provides a novel alternative to personalise merchandise in a means that can not be replicated with conventional strategies. When utilizing the H350, we’ve seen value financial savings throughout all the product growth strategy of as much as £22,000 towards these of injection moulding strategies, as we’re eliminating tooling prices utterly. We have now additionally shortened our lead instances to round ten days in comparison with the 3-6 months it might probably take with conventional manufacturing.”

“We’re seeing a particular pattern in companies’ readiness for quantity manufacturing of finish use components,” provided Yann Rageul, Head of Manufacturing Enterprise Unit EMEA & Asia at Stratasys. “DQBD is showcasing how the H350 and its SAF expertise cannot solely optimise all the manufacturing course of with helpful time and value financial savings, but in addition exhibits the deployment of AM for actually distinctive and superior designs – prepared for manufacturing at scale. We’re proud to see that the SAM saddle design DQBD created exhibits the developments of additive manufacturing inside the product growth cycle – because the product idea was designed round AM from the beginning.”

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