Industrial Design Using 3D Modeling and 3D Printing

3D modeling and printing are being used more and more in the realm of functional design. Being able to produce something in a program like CAD or SolidWorks, and then 3D print a physical model gives designers and manufacturers alike a better sense of how the finished product will look in a physical space.

We caught up with Tomasz, a long-time 3D designer from Warsaw, Poland who has been using SolidWorks for almost 20 years to design and produce items for the medical, automotive, IT, and other industries. Currently, he is designing steampunk-style lamps for his own burgeoning start-up, which was recently successfully funded on Kickstarter.

Tomasz has seen firsthand how the capabilities and acceptance of 3D modeling and printing have enabled all of these industries. “The widespread emergence of 3D printing has made it much easier and faster to bring products to the market. It is easy to print several variants of a product and assess its ergonomics and other parameters even at the stage of the initial concept. The companies I work with high value this possibility.”

Two main points for any industry looking to adopt 3D printing into their prototyping workflow are time from concept to production, as well as turnaround time on iterations to the final product. 3D printing drastically reduces the time and money spent on producing new products and modifying existing ones. Some industries have seen a drop in over 90% in the time and money it takes to get a product to market once they adopt 3D printing.

It also opens up the possibility of ‘fringe ideas’ getting more attention and a higher possibility of being produced. “I have completed many industrial design projects for companies in the medical, automotive, IT, and other industries. For each of these realizations was made 3D printing in FDM or SLA technology. Sometimes these were short series intended for verification by a larger team. I think that without the possibility of 3D printing, many of these projects would simply not have been created.”

With the cost of 3D printing bringing the cost of development so low, even these smaller, previously dismissed ideas are coming more and more to fruition. The designs that Tomasz creates for his steampunk lamps simply wouldn’t have been possible without 3D printing on a local level.

“Without the ability to 3D print designs and assemble them, my hobby would not exist. Making CAD designs is not as satisfying as being able to put them together and use them, so these are lamp designs that combine creativity and functionality.”

With the costs in the design process for every stage being reduced so drastically, there are more and more opportunities for small to mid-sized companies to become relevant in a market that otherwise would not be accessible to them because of enormous startup costs in machinery to manufacture products in the traditional sense. By bringing everything in-house for the iteration process of development and production, manufacturing and prototyping costs are no longer a barrier to entry for these new, innovative companies.

3D printing has helped Tomasz move into work on designs that interest him rather than working for a larger company as well - all without a massive investment in capital equipment. From concept exploration to rapid prototyping, and final production, 3D printing has enabled him to bring his own visions to life and share them with a wider audience, who can virtually order these designs and produce them, in turn, themselves at home. No supply chain management, no shipping charges, no giant customer service, and HR department overhead; everything is done on a very personal level, from design, to purchase, to 3D print at home by the customer.

Using Kickstarter, he is able to reach a precise audience - people that are interested in new and exciting ideas in 3D printing that speak to them and their design aesthetics. Something that traditional manufacturing and advertising platforms have never been able to do.

Many thanks to Tomasz for sharing his story with us and allowing us to share his work for this article. We have many more resources available to anyone interested in enabling their personal, small, and mid-size businesses with 3D printing here: https://www.matterhackers.com/industries/engineering-and-design

Be sure to visit Tomasz’s Instagram page for more information and inspiration here: https://www.instagram.com/tomaszfortyfour/

If you have any questions about 3D printing and how to bring it into your workflow, please email sales@matterhackers.com - we have experts that have experience enabling industries from every vertical market.