Terry Hill is a U.S. veteran and entrepreneur who was so convinced of the value of additive manufacturing that he resigned from his job after the Army to prove its potential. In 2017 he founded Rapid Application Group, LLC, out of his home office. Since opening its doors, the company has grown exponentially, experiencing 300% growth in its second year to become one of Oklahoma’s fastest-growing companies.
Rapid Application Group is a full production additive manufacturing service bureau providing mission-critical and time-sensitive support to customers in the oil, gas, motorsports, healthcare, aerospace, and defense sectors. Based in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, the service bureau has over 25 years of collective experience in additive manufacturing and is a subject matter expert in Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), MultiJet Printing (MJP) and Direct Metal Printing (DMP) with supplemental access to a complete range of additive manufacturing technologies through 3D Systems On Demand. Prior to founding Rapid Application Group, Hill spent 13 years in the U.S. Army as an engineer and aviator, and Rapid Application Group is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.
Challenges:
Given the incredible growth of the business, Hill began looking for a cost-effective way to increase his production capacity while maintaining part quality. Hill looked at speed-to-market, repeatability, part surface finish, and system cost.
Solutions:
Hill cites the purchase of 3D Systems’ Figure 4® technology as a game-changing decision for the success of his business. In addition to ease of operation and the ability to produce fast, reliable output at low cost, Figure 4 Standalone paid for itself and doubled Rapid Application Group’s production capacity for high-quality small parts in just a few months.
The things that first impressed Hill about the machine were how compact, powerful and moveable it was. “I wanted something that I could possibly move into a different area or add onto,” he says. “It was an easy purchase decision.”
Benefits:
Within a few hours of unboxing, Rapid Application Group was up and running. Figure 4 can be calibrated to achieve the tolerance requirements for six sigma repeatability.
“The repeatability of Figure 4 is a big deal for me,” says Hill. “I know that I can load a file and walk away, and when I come back the parts will be exactly like the print before, which is critical to maintaining our quality standards and production schedules. Figure 4 Standalone doubled our capacity on highly detailed small parts and paid for itself within a matter of months.”
Fast and easy 3D printing, high-quality production parts
The ability to quickly and easily start new prints is important across applications and industries, but it directly impacts the bottom line in the service bureau environment. The time and complexity of every stage affect overall productivity, from receiving and quoting parts to fixing files, sending parts to print, and ensuring quality. “Of all the technologies we have in the company, Figure 4 Standalone is by far the easiest and fastest to use,” Hill says. “Coupled with 3D Sprint®, it delivers the perfect storm of repeatability and has completely opened capacity inside the company.”
With Figure 4 Standalone, Rapid Application Group is able to produce high-quality parts with shorter lead times than ever before. Once a print is complete, achieving a final part is a simple process of removing supports, rinsing the part, and running it through a cycle in the UV curing station. “When I receive a file first thing in the morning, it can be on the printer by lunch, and I can have a part in hand within 30-45 minutes,” Hill says. A comparable part would take nearly seven hours on other systems.
Injection-molded surface quality with Figure 4 TOUGH-GRY 15 material
According to Hill, the surface quality of Figure 4 parts is so comparable to injection-molded parts that several of his customers have asked him to clarify the production process upon delivery. “I’ve had customers tell me it looked like we injection molded parts that were actually printed,” Hill says. “In surface quality, strength characteristics and speed of parts delivery, Figure 4 Standalone has helped us excel. It’s like 3D Systems took an injection molding machine and stuffed it into a two-by-two foot space.”
Rapid Application Group worked with a medical device company to produce a new version of a component that was continually breaking and causing maintenance issues with routine use. Rapid Application Group 3D printed the new component using Figure 4 Standalone and Figure 4® TOUGH-GRY 15 material and subjected it to a series of qualification tests. Although specifications required the component be able to withstand a seven-foot drop, Hill took things a step further and instead launched the parts into the dry wall in his workshop: “The parts embedded into the dry wall and came back out completely intact,” he says.