3D PRINTING
3D printing
brings major
savings
A unique 3D-printing
application is playing a
pivotal role in helping a
spring ring manufacturer to
shave weeks off lead times and
deliver hugely increased product
volumes to meet growing customer demand.
L ast year, West Yorkshirebased
Cirteq made around
700 million circlips and
retaining rings, exporting
them across the globe to more
than 500 customers spanning
the aerospace, automotive, rail
and sustainable energy sectors.
Used in engine construction
to stop something coming out
of a bore or to keep something
on a shaft, Cirteq’s 3,800
product variants are made to
the exacting specifications
of OEMs including Jaguar
Land Rover, Volvo, Honda,
GKN, Bosch, Siemens and
Mitsubishi.
To enable the business to
continue to deliver quality
parts in such high numbers,
it identified 3D printing as an
assistive technology – and it
has now become an integral
part of its ongoing success.
Cirteq Customer Quality
Liaison Manager Theo Speller
said: “We were trying to link
processes and equipment in a
production cell via ancillary
equipment that really moved
products from A to B, and it
needed to get them there in
a minimal time and also add
some value.
“What we’ve printed are
rails that not only deliver the
parts to the next process, but
in some stages can actually oil
the parts as they’re moving,
say from a sorting bowl to an
oiling station, or from an oiling
station to a packing station.
“We’ve taken away a stage
that required a lot of manual
labour. One person can now
do the job that it traditionally
took four people to do, and
we’ve reduced the footfall
from walking across the
factory to getting the finished
component in a fraction of
the time and a fraction of the
cost.”
Cirteq uses a Stratasys
Objet350 Connex3 machine,
supplied by Stratasys UK
platinum partner SYS Systems
– part of the Carfulan Group.
The Carfulan Group is
a family-owned business,
founded in 1989, made up
of a team of engineering
experts and based at its
Innovation Centre in Foston,
near Derby. It specialises in
providing the most advanced
manufacturing technology
solutions available on the
market, helping to bring ideas
into reality and streamlining
company processes, across
four divisions: OGP UK,
SYS Systems, Zoller UK
and Vicivision UK. Its
work covers supplying and
servicing for multi-sensor
inspection equipment, 3D
printing and tool pre-setting
and measurement, as well as
turned-part measurement
solutions.
The first system in the
world to simultaneously
3D-print multiple colours
and materials, the Connex3
allows users to create models
with the look, feel and
properties of real production
parts, as well as quickly and
easily print off custom jigs,
assembly fixtures and tooling
with ultra-fine accuracy
and without any major post-
“We’ve taken away a stage that required a lot of manual
labour. One person can now do the job that it traditionally
took four people to do...”
30 Issue 2 2020