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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- Discover the innovative ways Ford has leveraged 3D printing to save millions annually at their Sharonsville Transmission Plant. Contrary to common perceptions about 3D printing being just a hobbyist tech, Ford has effectively utilized it for mass production. From replacing critical pucks on the assembly line to the creation of intricate jigs, 3D printing has reduced costs and improved efficiency. Jeff Fisher and Jonne Messer, integral to this transformation, demonstrate how even those outside the engineering field can harness the benefits of mass production 3D printing. Check out this case study to understand the real-world applications and benefits of 3D printing spare parts.
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Where I work at I do this for the company. There are some ridiculously cheap replacement plastic parts that either can’t be ordered or are not made anymore. The worse one is a simple injected molded gear, that wears down in about a year, and drives a plastic belted in-feed system. They refuse to sell the gear separately, but it is included with a brand new 1700$ in-feed setup. I cloned it, fixed an angle and print it for 35 cents. That is one example of dozens.
That's a really smart move, no need to buy such an expensive set just for a gear every year
Is it pretty proprietary? Too bad you couldn't find a machined one and have it last a loooong time
Engineer at STP here. I have been working with Jeff and Jonne to normalize 3D printing in our plant since 2017. Our first printer was a Lulzbot to prove out concept; we had a Prusa farm shortly thereafter. A big moment for us was realizing we could use TPU to create custom sized belts for machines. Curiosity is definitely our best attribute.
That is an application that I hadn't considered. It's a great idea.
That’s absolutely ingenious
The idea that a customer can print solutions for existing products rather than being behold to a company and repurchase every time they decide to change something is revolutionary.
You really shouldn't tamper with a live savibg emergency stop button even if it can safe you a few dollars
@@EinfachFredhaftGaming It's just an example, it can be applied to a lot of areas.
@@EinfachFredhaftGaming And this is the attitude that will bankrupt most of the old companies.
Jonne is my stepmom, I couldn’t be more proud of the work her and Jeff have done. They have put a lot into this project and have done an amazing job. Jonne has purchased a couple of 3D printers for home use and each year we get some 3D printed Christmas ornaments and Halloween decorations. She’s committed to growing in her printing abilities. Ford is lucky to have them both!!
I got myself a 3d printer where i work (i deal with a hotel maintenance), and already produced an inexpensive replacement part for the card holders in the rooms. The new model we are using are from "Bticino" brand, and have a little plastic piece that pushes the card against the switch. If you pull towards you when extracting the card, not just upwards, the piece breaks sometimes, and stops making it work. The card isn't pressed against the the switch, and lights never turn on. Of course, the provider don't have a replacement part, so you have to buy a brand new card switch for arround 56€. I took one apart, measured it and created a copy in Onshape. Works flawlessly. Fixing an important 56€ piece of equipment with a 0.07€ printed part. I had 10 broken switches stored, and they all got fixed with a 300€ Ender 3... the printer has already paid itsellf with it's first job...
And they probably passed zero of the money saved onto you. 😂😂
@@BabyJesus66 Of course, i was just doing my job...
It is incredibly frustrating to work for a large company that seems to delight in throwing away money, rather than exploring cost saving solutions like what these folks were allowed to do. It makes you wonder if they asked permission to do these things, or if management found out about it after the fact.
Depending on the company and the people there, sometimes it's best to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission.
in my experience it is usually better to just ask for forgiveness once you can prove that it works.
As being said, it's usually easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
But it's really tiresome to be forced to work "illegally" just to make your work easier or more reliable.
The worst part?
Usually, companies will scream at you for doing this and tell you to be happy to keep your job.
While they will save enormous amounts of money.
I have yet to be in a company that would tell me "Hey, you made us save 10k per year with this fix! Here, the first year is for you." or whatever.
Fast to blame, and never grateful, that's sad.
I hop I just was in bad companies...
I worked at an Amazon warehouse, and they had push buttons that would come off, you couldn’t buy just the plastic screw on button, you’d have to buy the entire button assembly. The vibration of the machines made quite of these buttons come off. One push button costed $50-$60. I took one of the caps home, and modelled and printed ~30 caps cause I was a tech and it made me cringe looking at that cost.
As a manufacturing design engineer for the navy i had designed a single part that was a cost avoidance of $210,000 per H-53 rotor blade. During the first year that one design saved the navy over 4 million dollars and is still used to this day.
They should’ve gotten giant raises.
I hope, at Nissan Mexicana we do the same cost saving things and if you are lucky they give you a little diploma and some present, like a cheap pen or something with the factory logo.
They are UAW members. In the union, everyone must be paid the same.
They got 30 cents an hour. Later that day Ford told them they could have even more money in their pocket if they changed auto insurance companies. A real TIP!
I work for an electrical contractor. We bought our 1st 3D printer 2 years ago, we now have 6 printers. Once our field electricians saw what we could do, they reach out to us looking for spare parts that they can not longer find, or something that may help them on a job. They can't believe once we get the part. Printers some days run 24-7.
You should reach out to us. We could get you setup in the Print on Demand Side so you don't have to maintain your own printers
@@slant3d Thanks. We're moving on the direction of acquiring more equipment to suit our costumers needs. We want to keep everything in house as it makes it so much easier as far as logistics.
Constantly printing something for my little factory. The last thing was a part for small powder coat hoppers, which saved us about 3 weeks and allowed to iterate much quickly.
Your videos are one of the few things that keep me going on the road of building a great 3d printing farm. Thank you so much.
Love your content. Always so well rounded. I work with a small custom laser shop locally, we're always talking about improvements the 3D Printing can bring to his shop. Gifted them a 3D Printer 2 years ago, just got them a second and about to help with their third. Improved their flow so much they can't be without.
I've been watching your videos for a long time now, I also happen to be a UPS driver who only deals with commercial businesses. I loved this story because with only a few home printers I have produced some machine parts for customers who use very old and rare parts which cannot be found due to the companies being long out of business. I have definitely helped in this same way and love the story!
If you've seen Zack Freedman's video on the diamondback nozzle facility the amount of 3d printing bits that they use on the factory floor is really cool
Modern jet fighters have lots of sensors in them and due to that you need quite the maintenance to make them work and prevent them from getting wet, dust , etc in them , a dude that was working in the maintenance of said fighter jets had the idea of making a 3D printed cover for the a part of the nose of the plane, by covering the sensors the sensors won't get dust nor water in them , the guy is currently looking for patents since that cover that doesn't cost more than 50 dollars functions pretty damn well for making sure that the sensors of the over 65 million dollar (i think it was more expensive than that) fighter jet function for longer times.
That was done by using an average FDM 3D printer , if people still think that 3D printers are just a hobby thing then they don't pay attention to what happens around the world. Oh , did i mention that in the current war in Ukraine some of the drones used are mostly 3D printed ?
It's not a factory, but I work in an R&D lab. We utilize 3d printing for printing fixtures and prototype pieces. The prototype can be the typical scaled down model to show how a product is going to fit together, or how it will work. We also make functional prints which can range from a simple spacer to a full housing for electronics assemblies, to custom o-rings and gaskets. My favorite print is a combination or multiple o-rings with a gasket. This is printed out of a material with a hardness or 82A, so it's soft and pliable. Having this as one piece has saved us a huge headache of figuring out how to hold high pressure o-rings for a hydraulic system down inside an assembly.
At a previous lab I worked in, we would have clear 3d molds printed for vacuum fit two part silicone for various over mold applications. One was a two step process to over mold PCBs for a high vibration and high G load environment. The first mold layer was more rigid, but had much better thermal characteristics so the power ICs could have their head easily dissipated. The second layer was a lower hardness material to allow the assembly to the cavity it goes in much better, thus reducing or elimination secondary harmonic vibrations. Another molding operation we did, which would have been prohibitively expensive with traditional mold manufacturing methods, was a vacuum injected overmold for a very sensitive antenna coil. This coil needed the 2 part RTV to flow between the wires to lock them in place, as well as have a thick layer over the top to protect the wire from the harsh environment it which it would be working. The RTV had a metal shield over it, but it was not a sealed cavity, so we had to deal with high pressure (up to 20kpsi) trying to get into everything.
Right now, I'm printing parts that sell as a kit to upgrade the Ender 3 V2 NEO to a much more accurate and capable machine. Properly tweeked and sliced, you can print at 80 to 120mm/s all on and old school style bed slinger with an all in price of under 400 USD.
Awesome story! Thx for covering it.
I work in conveyor maintenance at a logistics company. We began testing 3D printing during covid when OEM parts became scarce and prices soared. So far we have replaced various expensive parts ranging from control knobs, gears, and sorter parts while also developing custom solutions for costly problems. I am still pushing to standardize 3D printing as a viable option for maintenance cost reduction and reducing dependency on OEM supply across our entire network. However, adoption is slow for this large company as they are still determining the legality and actual cost effectiveness of these parts (durability/safety risks) and the labor required to upkeep a small print shop.
I work for Otis and am working on building out a second 3d printing lab at our factory to support engineering development projects and to create fixtures for the factory. We currently have a lab at a sister site where they are using 3d printing to create end use replacement parts for elevators installed 70-80 years ago which we can no longer buy parts for.
Really cool story, chances are these employees wont be compensated how they deserve. Im surprised they didnt get shut down due to existing contracts with suppliers and even more surprised they were allowed to produce parts involved with emergency stop systems.
exactly, its great but this sort of work is often overlooked, the save the companies millions but only get a few more thousand a year.
And yet these are the same companies who go against right to repair ☹️
Yeah it's something special ain't it. Makes my blood boil.
0:48 I'm surprised they use hobbyist printers on that picture. Most industrial settings I visited use hi-temp hi-speed machines with heated chambers for making jigs and tools. Usually with some blend of PA.
That said, traditionally jigs to hold finished parts are made out of teflon (the core can be metal). Teflon is easily machined with any cnc lathe or mill, which machine shops routinely do.
I love (hate) the idea that these people saved their company over a million dollars and got nothing more than a pat on the back and a thumbs up for the good work.
As an (F) Stockholder I say... Bravo!!!
I used to work at a university research workshop. They had these covers for peristaltic pumps that basically had to be replaced weekly, and cost about 120 euros each. Basically the printer ink business model. I spent about thirty minutes moddeling the part and about an hour printing it. Worked like a charm, cost about ten cents.
Have printed a ton of stuff at the manufacturing facility where I work. Started out printing stuff at home for work. Then was doing enough for work I decided to buy a printer for work. We don’t use it all the time but we have periods where we’re using it a ton! Setup jigs for machines, custom parts for old machines that aren’t available, etc.. We’re a small company but we have a hundred machines, so it still helps!
Awesome story. "Design and improve, where needed, as needed" in-house, by those that know the problem domain.
I haven't thought of that before, but 3D-printing is bad news for a lot of those companies that produce niche products and can have an absurd markup mostly because the volume is just low enough to keep their customers from start producing their own, and direct competitors from start producing things that fills the same purpose, possibly even better alternatives.
Hey! Could you make a video about watertight 3d prints especially for mass production? Would not be efficient to post process it with eg. Epoxy to seal it.
Greetings from Germany
You mentioned there are many stories like Ford's. I'm actually having a hard time finding stories where a industrial facility benefits from small printers on site. I know in my heart that the stories are out there, but I can't find them. Can you tell me where to look?
Now that we have good quality high speed corexy 3d printers that are affordable and easier to use, every factrory should have a few to print these high wear parts on demand, inhouse in a matter of few hours(used during off hours)❤👍
I remember designing and printing a solution to a niche problem when I worked at one of Ford's assembly plants last year. I was in the IT department though and Ford is such a massive corporation that anything you do or can do is just going to be ignored or forgotten, especially at the lower echelon. I doubt my solution is still being used now; probably just tossed in the bin.
I dont know how things work in MURICAA but installing an uncertified, un tested emergency button means 'take the rest of the day off and dont come back tomorrow' here.
Why would they not make the plastic parts that break often out of aluminum or something stronger?
because some parts are designed to be the point of failure to avoid damage to something else,
In company where i work we print almost all plugs cowers etc its reman factory
Genius, and full stop in the factory, now takes second because they have spares on hand. Made cheap. I'll guess that, it's not the only factory, where FORD does this.
If item keeps breaking, you need to remove the problem, rethink the part, material, etc.. not "just print another one"
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:13 💰 Ford saved millions of dollars per year at one transmission plant by using 3D printing for critical parts like pucks.
01:53 🔄 3D printing was significantly more cost-effective than buying $180-per-piece pucks, even when factoring in material and labor costs.
03:18 🛠️ 3D printing was used to redesign and replace parts like emergency stop buttons, saving costs and avoiding the need for expensive replacements.
05:09 🆕 Redesigning and 3D printing a steel jig as a plastic palette fixture reduced rejection rates, saved thousands of dollars, and improved performance.
07:12 🧑🔬 You don't need to be an expert to use 3D printing in your facility; you can learn and apply it to improve processes and save money.
08:09 👏 Sharing success stories of 3D printing applications in industry helps highlight its potential for saving businesses millions of dollars per year.
Made with HARPA AI
180 bucks for a piece of plastic that regularily breaks... Didn't know that Apple made factory supplies too.
I'm also somewhat speechless that a manufacturing like for steel parts did not see the obvious flaw in having the "jigs" made from the same material...
Why didn't they had them made in brass or aluminium? Would then instead the jigs be ruined constantly?
And is 3D printed the same, just faster, cheaper and with more plastic waste?
That's cool. Biggest hurdle for me is the CAD stuff. If I would have an engineer next to me, I would have a blast :)
I downloaded DesignSpark Mechanical. I had no prior CAD experience and I picked it up pretty quick. DesignSpark was made with laypeople in mind so they could make CAD designs and send them off to people that could make them. I may eventually dip my toes into Fusion 360 but DesignSpark was great for jumping in without any experience whatsoever and getting things from an idea, to an STL, to an actual plastic part.
Its a hurdle not a 20 foot wall, your blast awaits you.
It's not as hard as you probably think. Start small and make a doorstop or something simple. TH-cam has TONS of great videos where you can learn to use CAD.
I think I would have gotten tired of 3D printing if I never learned CAD. Now I run a small online shop selling custom phone cases, and being able to whip up a product I think up in my head feels like magic.
I am currently following a Beginner's tutorial for FreeCAD from @MangoJellySolutions. Highly recommended!
As someone who's used CAD for a bit over 20 years now, I hardly understand why people who don't know CAD or at least 3D modelling like Blender would even buy a 3D printer :P I think I have printed like 4 things that I didn't design myself :p 😊
👏👏👏
That may be the only part Ford makes in house.
I know Jonne personally😊❤, she is one of the most smartest person I’ve known…she can engineer anything and will love the challenge. So proud of her….and Jeff….
Thats Fantastic. Great to hear a celebrity is great in real life.
I agree! ❤️
I hope they were handsomely rewarded for their efforts.
$100 for a stop button? No way, more like $300-600
And not one damn penny of that savings was paid to the actual workers. They deserve the coming strike.
The workers belong to a union. If you've ever worked in a union shop you should know that you can't reward individual workers no matter how much they may deserve it.
So am i the only one horrified at the idea of 3d printed emergency stop buttons? Those things are usually SIL certified for a reason....
'saved millions of dollars'
but they probably didnt get paid for that savings.
Cool story, bro.
Pi likes! Ha!
I feel like this has nothing to do with 3d printing. In the examples 3d printing was A solution, but not THE solution. The cleats are $180 because large corporations do dumb things. In reality, making a custom mold and mass producing them on an annual basis would likely be cheaper than 3d printing. The jigs featured had no features solved by 3D printing. Changing colors and switching to plastics can be done via conventional methods.
We use 3d printing at my factory and right now its reserved for one offs, and covers/guards. But we are developing bi-material printing designs to reduce cost and leadtime on low volume fixtures/jigs. Something that actually utilizies the unique capabilities of additive manufacturing.
we actually have an 80 ton press at our disposal and the cost to have a mold made was 15k, by 3d printing we were able to change the whole design making it a better fit for the application in a matter of hours , while coming in at a printed material cost of under .50 cents a piece. It would have taken 10 plus years to offset the cost of an expensive mold, material as well as the press itself. and as far as subtractive manufacturing you would have exceded the cost of 3d printing it in waste alone not to mention the labor to do the work, the cost of raw material, waste, and building of the jig and or fixtures. Our savings to print these parts 1 time was $144,000.00 combined with a downtime savings and loss of jobs per hour putting the total savings at 500K. this was totally a 3d printing solution!!! combined with our other 2200 pieces we now print in house our savings to date is now over $ 4,000,000.00
A solution doesn't have to use all the capabilities of a manufacturing method for it to be the most optimal solution.
Also, economy of scale only works if you have enough scale to offset the massive startup costs associated with things like injection moulding.
@@jeffreyfisher8594 good work Jeff, hopefully you get some nice benefits from you and your partners contributions
I bet Ford passed the savings directly to the customers. 😂😂
Lol if ford was alittle smarter about how they dealt with there issues they could have fixed the jig issues years ago. Make them aluminum!