3D Systems Helps Spectrum Brands Trim Product Development Time To increase efficiency and enhance quality, Spectrum Brands, Inc. (ex-Rayovac Corporation), with North American headquarters based in Madison, Wisconsin, wanted to improve product design and development. The firm’s design engineers faced costly delays when developing product prototypes for the company’s line of shaving, grooming, and personal care products. Lead project engineer, Alex Kobryn, talks of a time when Spectrum Brands had to wait weeks for outside vendors to create each prototype. “In some cases,” says Kobryn, “we would need to create eight or nine versions of an intricate part before it was right. This process was not only time consuming, but costly as well.” Faced with these challenges, Kobryn’s product design team decided to investigate stereolithography (SL) technology as a means of reducing product development time and lowering prototype creation costs. After weighing their options, Spectrum Brands selected the Viper™ SLA® (stereolithography) system from 3D Systems (Valencia, California USA). The Viper SLA system features a long-life solid-state laser, dual-resolution part-building modes, and a broad selection of 3D Systems advanced solid-state Accura® SL materials. In order to create prototypes that are accurate and heat-resistant, Spectrum Brands decided to use 3D Systems’ Bluestone™ SL material. Bluestone is a nano-composite material that opens up new application opportunities for SLA system users, due to its high stiffness and thermal resistance. Spectrum Brands’s products often have small protrusions, such as an air diffuser with built-in combs that can easily flex or break if not built with a strong and heat-resistant material like Bluestone. Bluestone has allowed Spectrum Brands to conduct actual functional testing of parts that see air temperatures in excess of 210°F and contact temperatures of 400°F and up. “Bluestone has worked well for us,” says Kobryn. “By using Bluestone, we are able to test more designs prior to production. Despite being a heavily filled engineered nano-composite material, we have found it easy to work with and similar to using more mainstream SL materials. It provides Spectrum with parts that we are able to place in a full temperature air stream. All of our other resins would deflect or distort due to the elevated temperature and the pressure of the air moved across the surfaces.” Close Shave The impact of the Viper system and Bluestone material on Spectrum Brands product development was felt almost immediately. For instance, according to Kobryn, when the shaving group was challenged to design a new latching mechanism in a hair pocket (the place within a shaver where the shaving foils are retained), they used the Viper system to produce five different prototype variations of the latch—in just over a week. In the past, says Kobryn, the design of a hair pocket would have required the team to outsource each of the prototypes, which would lead to long and frustrating delays. “Before acquiring this technology, we faced some difficult issues when working through part revisions with suppliers,” say Kobryn. “The tedious process could span three or more weeks during which time we had to explain our changes, rework CAD drawings, and often rework the prototype multiple times. Plus, we faced inevitable delays due to miscommunication and shipping.” Instead of outsourcing or creating special tooling in-house, Spectrum Brands is now able to conveniently produce a working functional prototype and solve their design problems in half the time using the Viper system. “It is now very easy for us to create a model and then quickly make small changes to it,” says Kobryn. Smooth Finish Time isn’t the only thing Spectrum Brands is saving by using the Viper system with Bluestone material. Recently, when designing a gasket, the company avoided significant costs that would have been incurred without the SLA system by doing high-temperature functional testing with the Bluestone parts prior to tooling. “Our old method would have required us to create a $5,000 tool, and it would have taken six weeks to build it,” says Kobryn. “Plus, any changes to the gasket design would have required a $500 to $700 tweak to the tooling. With the Viper system, we can make a gasket prototype in just two hours. If we want to make a small change, we update our CAD drawing and the new part is done in a few hours. From a cost savings standpoint, it’s phenomenal.” Product quality is also enhanced through the rapid prototyping process. “The Viper system brings the designer closer to their final design goal,” Kobryn explains. “We can even add functionality to the part. For example, instead of machining the buttons on one of our products as we would have done in the past, we simply made revisions to the product’s CAD data and used Bluestone to create a working prototype. We made five or six revisions to the prototype before we ultimately developed buttons with the functionality we were seeking.” Kobryn has also seen a marked improvement in internal and external communications since they installed their Viper system. Today, when new products are designed, 3-D prototypes and fully functioning models can be presented to internal groups, such as sales and marketing, as well as to outside vendors. “They can see the internal workings of a product and get a feel for how it works,” says Kobryn In the past, according to Kobryn, engineers would huddle around a computer screen to view a product design. They might try, for instance, to determine where to put a handle on the product. “There would be some general agreement about where to place a handle,” says Kobryn, “but no one could be sure how it would feel in the user’s hand. With our Viper system, we can make a prototype that has the same weight and feel as the real thing. We can then send the finished prototype off to manufacturing, and they can see how everything fits together. These capabilities have greatly improved communications internally and with outside suppliers.” Today, the Viper system is used by divisions throughout Spectrum Brands. According to Kobryn, the company is building as many as three different prototype parts per day with the Viper system. The company uses the machine nearly every night and most weekends to build complex parts, which might require as many as 30 hours of machine time. In the first six months alone, Spectrum Brands ran their Viper system more than 2,000 hours. With the success of the first machine, Kobryn is considering adding a second Viper SLA system in the future. “This is an excellent technology,” says Kobryn. “It has provided us with a good balance between resolution and material quality. We may add another Viper system to further expand the use of this critical technology at Spectrum Brands.”