Materialise: Leader in Rapid Prototyping & Additive Manufacturing industry

Read more on this new member of the Automotive Cluster of Wallonia through their presentation. A tour of this company will be foreseen within the next months.

Leader in the Rapid Prototyping & Additive Manufacturing industry

The Materialise Group is best known for its activities in the field of rapid industrial and medical prototyping. Apart from having the largest capacity of rapid prototyping equipment in Europe, Materialise enjoys a worldwide reputation as provider of innovative software solutions. As such, Materialise has acquired the position of market leader for 3D printing and Digital CAD software in addition to being a major player in medical and dental image processing and surgery simulation. Through its unique .MGX division for design products, Materialise is currently opening the market for customised additive manufacturing. Their customer base includes all large companies in the automotive, consumer electronics and consumables sectors. The group has several subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and the USA, and employs over 800 people.

Designers' product ideas in 3D

Materialise started in 1990 as one of the first rapid prototyping en manufacturing (RP&M) service bureaus. Today they offer the widest range of technologies and largest capacity to support their customers in their product development process.

Prototypes have become essential during the design phase of a product. A tangible representation of the design allows to fully explore the strong and weak points of the product. By seeing and touching a physical model, the designer/engineer will find it much easier to identify the areas of their product that require improvement.

Prototyping solutions: From concept model to small, functional series

We thoroughly analyse the projects with the customer to see which technology is the best solution for their application. They can confidently count on the expert knowledge of the Materialise team for file preparation, technology selection, material choice and final finish.Concept models are the ideal tool for the first design evaluation. They also allow to discuss the product in detail with people from less technical departments. Materialise has a 24 hour service which delivers basic stereolithography models the next day.

Visual prototypes are exact representations of the end product which can be used for photo shoots and product launches at exhibitions. Materialise has its own paint and lacquer installation, operated by skilled people, offering customised paint mixing facilities for all RAL colours.

Prototypes are indispensable and should be seen as an essential phase in the product development process as they allow to eliminate expensive modifications to the production moulds. Using functional prototypes to perform all the mechanical tests on before going to production, results in huge cost savings.

In order to carry out accurate evaluations of design functionality, colour, technology suitability and market research, it is advisable to work with a series of prototypes. Depending on your application, these series can be produced with different technologies. They are manufactured in such a way that they have the same characteristics as the end product.

Unique solution for car manufacturers: Giant prototypes

Especially in the automotive sector, there is an ever growing demand for extremely fast and large prototypes of superior quality. Think of bumpers, instrument panels, door panels, fenders, etc. Materialise is the only service provider that is able to produce components over 2 m long without any gluing. These components are built in one piece on our exclusive Mammoth prototyping machines. When you need several copies of your large model, we copy it by means of the R.I.M. technology.

Revolutionary technologies for the creation of concept cars

More and more car manufacturers are using the benefits of additive manufacturing in the production of concept cars. The process opens a new world of design freedom and allows concept cars to be built faster than with the traditional methods. One of the major advantages is the possibility to personalise designs. Materialise has already built up a broad knowledge in the field of additive manufacturing, also for concept cars. Several recent concept cars consist of Materialise additive manufacturing technologies: Pininfarina's Sintesi, Citroën's Hypnos and GT, Renault's Ondelios, Mazda's Kiyora, … Materialise has definitely taken the lead in the use of additive manufacturing for concept cars. They not only take care of the component production, but as acompany and their link with design, through the Materialise.MGX brand, they are a source of inspiration for vehicle designers around the world.

Measuring and controlling top-quality components

Materialise house the latest precision instruments in order to offer a complete scanning, measurement and quality control service.

We have a continual drive to treat your prototypes as real production parts. The scanning & measurement services allow us to integrate full dimensional quality control and inspection in our rapid prototyping and manufacturing business processes. With regard to prototyping, the customer receives on demand custom-made measuring reports with their projects. As the critical dimensions and features (e.g. CMM inspection points) are indicated, they gain a better view on the quality of their design and are able to carry out necessary changes efficiently.

RapidFit+: Additive Manufactured Fixtures

RapidFit⁺ is a revolutionary custom designed and manufactured clamping system that has a unique fit to each part, and enables you to check, measure, machine or assemble parts in the most accurate and secure way. Each fixture is designed directly from the CAD data of the component and produced using additive layer manufacturing processes to ensure a perfect fit to part surfaces. Lead-times can be shortened by more than three weeks and costs can be halved compared to traditional clamping systems.

Materialise and le Cluster AutoMobilité de Wallonie'

We see la région Walonne' as an expanding industrial region with regards to small series production and additive manufacturing. Through le Cluster we hope to get in contact with the right people in the automotive sector in order to be able to offer our innovative technologies to these companies.

Please, do not hesitate to contact us for any further information on this company.

Author : Materialise