rawlplugmay have over 100 years of experience within the power tool market, including the development of the world’s first wall plug, but the firm is always looking for opportunities to make its R&D projects faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
In the past, the company’s tooling workshop conducted product QA testing via outsourced 3D printed mock-ups, before injection molding its end-use products. However, by switching to in-house prototyping and adoptingSinterit’s丽莎专业system, Rawlplug has recently been able to ramp up its design iteration process, and rapidly test anchors, fasteners, and fixings that are more representative of the final product.
Rawlplug的设计工程师Dominika Zarowna说：“我可以自信地说，如今3D打印是最重要的原型途径之一。”“由于我们能够检查打印输出的某些解决方案，因此我们需要创建更少的原型表单。对于我们和工具研讨会，它节省了大量时间。”
“We have experience with FDM and SLA 3D printers, but to print a lot of small elements, such as wall plugs, SLS is the best technology.”
From masonry to SLS innovation
早在1910年，英国发明家约翰·约瑟夫·罗林斯（John Joseph Rawlings）与British Museum将电气配件贴在其建筑物的墙壁上，以一种不引人注目的方式。为了实现这一目标，Rawlings创建了一个小型且固定的固定装置，并为其昵称为“ Rawlplug”，但现在被称为“墙壁塞”。
Arguably, Rawlings’ invention formed the basis of the modern fixings industry, and to this day, his legacy lives on through his firm which still bears the Rawlplug moniker. Over the last 111 years, the company has gone on to build a broad product portfolio of mounts, joints, and power tools, that have been deployed within the construction of buildings ranging from the Burj Khalifa to Wembley stadium.
In that time, Rawplug’s prototyping workflow has also come on leaps and bounds, moving from traditional manual production into 3D printing, but until recently, the process had been outsourced to an external vendor, adding unnecessary cost, complexity and ultimately lead times to the R&D of its new products.
Zarowna解释说：“当我第一次成为新员工时，我们曾经将印刷品外包给第三方。”“这通常花费大量时间。我们需要的是我们自己的3D打印机，以便将等待时间降至最低。同时，我们正在寻找新技术。”
A cost-friendly SLS entry-point
For some time, Rawplug’s design engineering team wanted to bring prototyping in-house, but the initial expenditure required to adopt an advanced SLS 3D printer effectively priced them out of the move. Since then, however, the company has found Sinterit’s Lisa Pro to represent a more compact, cost-effective alternative to larger industrial machines, installing the system at its dedicated tooling workshop.
利用他们的经济SLS系统,罗威套管engineers are now able to design new products and innovate upon existing ones at a more rapid pace than before, thus providing the company with the agility to quickly pivot, change design philosophy and continue to compete in what has become a crowded tooling marketplace.
Sinterit’s Lisa Pro is also supported by awide material portfolio，使团队能够在粉末之间切换，并在同一机器中创建具有截然不同的功能的产品。鉴于使用聚丙烯（PP）生产许多最终用途零件，该公司已经发现Sinterit’s new PP polymer是一个特别有用的原型工具,在宾夕法尼亚州rticular when it comes to making final part-quality mock-ups.
专注于质量而不是数量
在RawlPlug采用Lisa Pro之前，该团队希望加快其产品设计过程，但不以零件质量为代价。结果，在获取系统之前，工程师组合了一个全面的测试模型，该模型评估了其准确性和合并嵌套元素的能力，使用其他机器是不可能的。
Since passing its initial assessments, Rawlplug has opted to install the machine, deploying it to produce around 95% of its products, and only outsourcing larger parts once or twice a year. Additionally, the firm has found that the system yields a reduction in the number of iterations needed to perfect each product’s design, allowing it to bring them to market more quickly and gain an edge over its competitors.
“Lisa Pro is not quite the quickest 3D printer, but for us, that is not a big concern, because we reduced the waiting time for prints from 2 weeks to 2 days,” added Zarowna. “We have worked out a system, where we start printing on a Friday afternoon and the prints are already waiting for us on Monday when we come to work.”
通过从其设计师那里收集一周的项目，并立即生产多个概念，该公司还设法简化并最大程度地降低了其整体研发运营的成本。更重要的是，Rawlplug的SLS打印原型的质量使它们与注入模制零件相当，这意味着该公司可以将其性能测试到极限，知道如果通过，则最终产品也将是最终产品。
Ultimately, Zarowna concluded that Rawlplug’s market-leading product range is a result of the “good design” and “thoroughly thought-through testing” enabled by its Lisa Pro system, a machine which has also allowed Sinterit clients like腐烂技术到加快其原型制作过程，毫无疑问，将来会以类似的方式使他人受益。
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Featured image shows a cork board with several different Rawlplug mountings and fixtures attached to it. Image via Sinterit.
