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Tri/Mark Hardware
 Tri/Mark Corporation die casts more than 11,800 zinc
parts with 3D Systems’ Rapidsteel® 2.0 tooling material— Lead time reduced by 70%, tooling costs cut by 50%
Need to die cast parts in a hurry with good results? Tri/Mark Hardware of New
Hampton, Iowa, did just that. The company successfully die cast more than 11,800 zinc
parts with RapidSteel 2.0 tooling material made on a 3D Systems SLS® system.
Tri/Mark calculates that using the RapidSteel 2.0 inserts rather than traditional soft
tooling reduced tool production costs by about 50%. It also shortened overall tooling time
by 70% — from 10 or 12 weeks to only 3 weeks.
The parts die cast in this project were lock actuators measuring approximately 10 mm x
40 mm x 40 mm. The specific zinc used in the casting process was Zamak 3.
"We ran this RapidSteel material project in parallel with traditional soft tooling methods so
we could make cost and time comparisons and see how many zinc parts we could die cast
with RapidSteel inserts," says Travis Behara, a rapid prototyping engineer with Tri/Mark.
"We were very pleased with the parts and with the cost and time savings, and we didn’t expect to get nearly this many parts out of
the RapidSteel 2.0 tooling. We think using this method to create die cast tooling will help us serve our customers better and sharpen
our competitive edge."
Travis Behara, Rapid Prototyping Engineer
Tri/Mark
Tri/Mark reports that the RapidSteel tooling produced 7,000 cast zinc parts before showing
signs of wear. "The wear was primarily in non-critical areas, and we think it was due to the
geometry in the area," Behara says. "We believe we can correct this by polishing and
finishing the insert more thoroughly, which we plan on doing with our next test."
Tri/Mark’s next RapidSteel 2.0 test will focus on monitoring part accuracy. Later, the
company will produce more elaborate tooling to see how this rapid tooling process handles
parts with greater detail and geometric complexity.
Tri/Mark engineer Tony Ponto comments on how using the SLS system and RapidSteel
material will benefit the company and its customers.
"We do a lot of custom work and sometimes the quantities of parts we produce for our
customers aren’t very large — just 2,000 or 3,000 parts," Ponto says.
Behara agrees, noting, " I’ve worked with rapid prototyping before but never with the SLS
process and RapidSteel material. It’s great that you can take a tooling design, create the
tooling in metal quickly, have metal die cast parts in your hand so quickly — and get a
good quantity of parts."
"Using our SLS system and the RapidSteel material to create rapid
tooling is well adapted to applications like these and can help us fill
small orders, reduce time to market, and keep costs down. I think
it’s the next best thing since Pro/Engineer."
Tony Ponto, Engineer
Tri/Mark
More about Tri/Mark and how it benefits from the SLS System
Tri/Mark Corporation produces door hardware such as locks, bolts, latches, linkages, and
related components for heavy trucks, utility vehicles, farm equipment, trailers, RV’s, and other vehicles.
In addition to its work with the RapidSteel material, the company uses its SLS system
regularly with another 3D Systems material, DuraForm® GF material, to create
visualization models for its engineers and customers.
Travis Behara, Rapid Prototyping Engineer, stated that Tri/Mark has benefited from
owning the SLS system in a number of ways. "We’ve seen improvements in our designs,
and we’ve heard all kinds of positive remarks from the design engineers
on how our SLS system helps them," Behara says. "The engineers like being able to hold a part they’ve
designed, see what they’ve got, and make changes quickly. There’s only so much you can
get from looking at a design on a computer screen."
Behara adds that customers appreciate Tri/Mark’s SLS system as well. "They can see
what we’re doing for them, look closely at the part, make comments, and give us more
specific instructions on how to change it. It really gives all of us a competitive edge."
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