PROVEN QUALITY AND COST REDUCTION AT HIDROMEK WITH LOOP PRO 3D PRINTER

HIDROMEK – CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY MANUFACTURER WORKS WITH END-USE MODELS PRINTED ON LOOP PRO

“The surface quality is excellent. Parts are very rigid and functional; they are usable without or with minor post processing” – said Hakan Telışık, Hidromek Design Studio Manager

HİDROMEK, a globally known manufacturer of construction machinery, was founded in Ankara in 1978. The founder of HİDROMEK, Hasan Basri Bozkurt, started with producing attachments for agricultural tractors. This initiative was moved further in the following years and the first construction machine ever designed by Turkish engineers was produced. The product range was expanded in time, which led to the growth of HİDROMEK. Today, HİDROMEK has around 2000 employees and their machines work in more than 100 countries on 5 continents. Backhoe loaders, hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, motor graders and soil compactors are manufactured in six production facilities including 4 factories in Ankara, 1 factory in İzmir and 1 factory in Thailand. The new production facility is in an area of 1.4 million m2 in Ankara.

THE PROCESS

Industrial manufacturers cannot accept long downtimes due to strict time schedules, huge investments and many different processes which are being implemented to develop the company. Every detail is very important. Time and cost reduction of even a single process is a crucial step forward. LOOP PRO provides reliability and shortened lead time as an answer to Hidromek’s needs with printing fully functional parts with no need of post-processing and simultaneously reducing cost and time of implementation of each end-use part.
This is a 3D printed housing for a vehicle control unit, the very heart of the machinery. Operator controls the whole vehicle with this device. For the electronics that is being mounted inside and its functionality it is critical to keep the size accuracy, part durability and cut the end-use part production time. The original process implemented at Hidromek is labour intensive and time consuming, the goal was to find a solution that will accelerate the part creation process and generate savings to invest in further developments. Hidromek is currently using 3D printers in 3 ways: – for prototyping – for end-use functional parts in small quantities – for making a master model for silicone molding
Original process that guaranteed the desired surface is a cost of several hundred dollars – this includes production of a master model and silicone molds. Single mold withstands the process of creating around 20 parts, after that Hidromek’s engineers need to repeat the whole process. It is difficult to calculate the exact labor costs, but it means a long and costly process before the single part is ready to be used in a vehicle. The updated process with use of a LOOP PRO 3D printed end-use parts brought a significant time and cost reduction – up to 80% per single part with minimum labor cost since parts printed on LOOP PRO do not require post processing – there is also no need to print a master model, end-use part can be used right after it is 3D printed.

Main idea behind using LOOP PRO 3D printer is to simplify the workflow, reduce costs and increase model’s performance. With LOOP 3D CLOUD, there is no need to install any software, all user has to do is to log into their account and register each LOOP PRO to be able to manage a single machine or a fleet of LOOP PRO printers. LOOP 3D also provides an offline version upon request.

COST REDUCTION AND SHORTENED LEAD TIME

Grey model was printed with DYNAMIDE © GLASS FIBER

Printing time: 48 hours
Model size: 39 cm x 10 cm x 9,5 cm
Resolution: 150 microns
Support removal time: 10 minutes
Printing Cost: up to 54$ per part

No POST-PROCESSING is required which means there are negligible labor costs and the total time of preparing the part is reduced the printing time and support removal, which thanks to the flexible build plate, is quick and easy. 3D printed end-use parts passed their test at Hidromek who is very satisfied with the final result – model is being used directly in a heavy-duty vehicle.

“We are proud to cooperate with heavy duty automotive industry and Hidromek which is a challenging test for our DYNAMIDE © CARBON FIBER and GLASS FIBER materials – it was another test we passed with success thanks to the combination of hardware and software of LOOP 3D. LOOP 3D software has an intuitive and user-friendly interface and model preparation is a matter of minutes. It was a pleasure to work with 3DPrinterOS to make it happen” – comments Erkan Ustaoğlu, Founder of Loop 3D

Software was designed in close cooperation with 3DPrinterOS which accelerated the whole software creation process and supported the high-quality printing results that LOOP 3D provides with its hardware.

“We are very excited to support manufacturers like Loop 3D to reach the market faster by reducing their R&D time. The net result is the customer can purchase 20 000€ 3D printer that exceeds the performance of a 200 000€ printer. This means customers can purchase 10x more printers, at the same price point, and begin low-end production at unbelievable scale and quality” said John Dogru, Founder of 3DPrinterOS

Author

Anna Bogusz

EMEA Sales Manager of LOOP 3D

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