IBC Technologies saves time and cost when designing industrial jigs.

Customer at a Glance

IBC Technologies was founded more than 25 years ago with the express purpose of improving the world of hydronic heating. IBC currently serves the entire North American market and continues to produce innovative products for residential and commercial heating out of their Vancouver, BC location.

The Challenge

IBC Technologies was designing a jig that could be used to simplify and accelerate the assembly of fan components to be used in an industrial boiler. They need a manufacturing process that was quick and affordable enough to rapidly design, test, and revise multiple iterations of the jig, then produce the final part with minimal delay. Local manufacturing and sustainability were also an important consideration.

Producing jig prototypes with metal and CNC machining would have incurred high costs and long lead times, as well as producing an unacceptable amount of wasted material with this subtractive manufacturing process. They were interested in exploring alternative solutions.

Solution

IBC required quick lead times and a material robust enough to withstand long-term use with minimal wear-and-tear. The large size of the jig was also a technical barrier to overcome, as many of the more affordable manufacturing processes are limited in the size of part they can produce. IBC turned to Tempus 3D, a local additive manufacturing company, to find a solution.

IBC collaborated with Tempus' technical team to determine the best material and manufacturing processes for the jig. Multiple design iterations were produced and tested, including mounting 3D printed plastic parts on aluminum plate. Tempus recommended using Nylon 12 plastic 3D printed with HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology to produce the prototypes and final jig. The Nylon 12 provided the stiffness, wear resistance and chemical stability to provide years of use with minimal wear and tear, and Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing ensured precise dimensional accuracy, minimal wasted material as well as a large enough build chamber to accommodate the size of the jig.

Result

IBC was able to save time and money by using industrial 3D printing for the prototyping and manufacturing process, as well as meet their sustainability goals and keep manufacturing close to home.

• Quick turnaround time: Using HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printing technology allowed multiple prototypes to be quickly built, revised and tested, minimizing the delay between designing the first prototype and utilizing the final product.

• Cost reduction: Nylon 12 plastic is a very robust and cost-effective material, especially compared to machined metal or other traditional manufacturing. This made it affordable to produce and test multiple functional prototypes to test in real-world conditions before finalizing the design.

• Single-step manufacturing: Producing the jig in one piece saved manufacturing and assembly costs, as well as ensuring that each design revision and the final product were able to be manufactured and shipped within days of ordering.

• Sustainability: By working with Tempus 3D, IBC was able to meet it's green manufacturing goals in a number of ways. Using a local a local manufacturer and single material minimized the shipping cost for raw materials and the final product. Also, additive manufacturing using 3D printing technology eliminates the excessive waste traditionally produced by subtractive manufacturing processes, such as CNC machining.

Visit IBC Technologies

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Tempus 3D is an HP Certified industrial 3D printing company based in British Columbia, Canada, providing additive manufacturing solutions from rapid prototyping to production ready parts.

We offer Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Stereolithography (SLA), and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) to meet a wide range of production needs.

Have a project in mind? Contact us at info@tempus3d.com or request an online quote to see how Tempus 3D can support your next project.

Let's make it possible!