New Wave Media

 

3D printing technology or additive manufacturing (AM) gives manufacturers the ability to churn our prototypes of with simple to complex geometries quickly and cost-effectively. Axis Prototypes, a 3d printing company based in Montreal, recently demonstrated these benefits when a marine technology company needed parts under a tight deadline.

 

Kraken Sonar Inc. is a rapidly growing marine technology company that designs, develops and markets advanced sonar and acoustic velocity sensors for unmanned underwater vehicles used in military and commercial applications.  Kraken planned to showcase a new product at a trade show and needed a prototype fast.  Manufacturing the parts for their sensors via traditional fabrication methods would have taken too long and be too costly to meet their tradeshow deadline.  Compounding this was the complexity of the parts, which conventional manufacturing processes may not have been able to make fast enough.  Kraken needed an alternative manufacturing solution.

 

Enter Axis Prototypes, a Canadian company with 15 years of experience in different fields like jewelry, aerospace, military, dental and art which led Kraken Sonar to partner for the prototyping of its complex sonar parts. Given the model’s complexity, hand crafting would have taken too long and the costs of CNC machining were too expensive. Axis used a technique called stereolithography, an additive 3D printing manufacturing technique that layers material to build objects. In total, Kraken needed 15 elements.

 

Less than two weeks after the partnership formed, Kraken Sonar had its prototypes – perfectly surfaced and painted. “The lead time was the biggest saving,” said Kraken’s marketing manager Glenda Leyte. “Less than two weeks, which is impressive since Axis Prototypes had to print our large volume parts and complete all the finishing and painting.”