3D Printing of Transport Pallet

Field: Plastics processing, vacuum forming of thermoplastic materials (automotive industry)
Technologies Used: FDM 3D printing (3DGence INDUSTRY F340 printer)

About the Project

Geo Globe Polska is a plastics processing company specializing in vacuum forming of thermoplastics. While developing a new specialized transport pallet designed to protect manufactured parts in automotive industry production lines, the company sought to optimize production preparation processes and reduce the launch time for new production lines.

Engineering and Manufacturing Solutions

To avoid lengthy prototyping procedures, the company utilized an industrial FDM 3D printer, the 3DGence INDUSTRY F340:

Large-Format Prototype: A one-piece pallet prototype was printed from ABS material.
Design and Dimensional Verification: The precision of 3D printing enabled evaluation of complex geometry, verification of design solutions, and assessment of part dimensional tolerances during the planning stage, before casting the final industrial mold.
Robotic Line Preparation: The manufactured physical pallet model enabled pre-programming and calibration of industrial robots operating in the automotive factory production line.

Achieved Results

Reduced Prototyping Time: Prototype development and refinement time was reduced from several weeks to several days.
Faster Line Launch: The implementation time for the new production line at the automotive factory was reduced to 3 weeks.
Error Prevention and Reduced Costs: Potential design errors were eliminated during the digital and prototype stages, thereby avoiding costly rework of industrial molds.

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Problem

The traditional process of creating and manufacturing prototype molds was extremely lengthy and consisted of multiple stages. Any geometry modification or error in a prototype produced using traditional machining (CNC) or milling methods required costly new mold production and significantly delayed the start of serial production.

Result

Prototype development time was reduced from several weeks to several days. The created prototype enabled pre-programming of industrial robots in the automotive factory production line, and the new line implementation time was reduced to 3 weeks. Errors were identified and eliminated during the digital and prototype stages, avoiding costly rework of production molds.