Steeda Autosports

“We’re moving a lot faster, shaving weeks off our new product introduction cycles, and saving $3,000 per product in machining and moldmaking costs.”
– Chad Kroll, Product Development Engineer, Steeda Autosports

ZPrinting Supercharges Steeda AutoSports’ Production

There are cars, and then there is the Mustang, the American icon of muscle. It’s a beautiful thing rolling off the assembly line, but many owners want to make it their own, make it better and, yes, make it even faster.

They often turn to Steeda Autosports, maker of the largest complete line of Ford based accessories. The Pompano Beach, Fla., USA, company’s product line ranges from stunning wheels to shocks and springs to chrome radiator caps. Then there are the products that enhance performance, such as the aftermarket Cold-Air-Intake Kit, which adds 60 HP to the 5-Liter 2011 Mustang GT.

CHALLENGE

Prototyping Time and Expense
Aftermarket parts are a competitive industry and customers are price sensitive, so Steeda continuously investigates ways to extend its lead in innovation, quality and affordability. Recently, Steeda took a hard look at its prototyping process — mostly CNC machining — in search of ways to cut costs and increase speed. The prototypes were taking too long and costing too much, and they weren’t even realistic for organic shapes like molded tubes that needed to be tested in a wide range of sizes and configurations. “Machining these parts would have been outrageously difficult and expensive,” says Steeda Product Development Engineer Chad Kroll.

Strategy

3D Printing from CAD Designs
This examination led Steeda to 3D printing, a process that produces tangible physical models from 3D designs much as document printers produce business letters from word-processing files. Steeda looked at a range of rapid prototyping devices and selected a ZPrinter, which offers the fastest speed, lowest operating costs, most affordable materials, and the greenest solution.

To create a concept prototype, Kroll’s team simply takes any CAD design — in their case, a SolidWorks file — and sends it to the ZPrinter for production of a 3D physical model.

RESULTS

Weeks and Thousands of Dollars Saved
“ZPrinting prototypes is doing for our product development what our parts do for sports cars,” says Kroll. “We’re moving a lot faster, shaving weeks off our new product introduction cycles, and saving $3,000 per product in machining and moldmaking costs.”

For parts like oil caps and hood pin plates, 3D printing replaces costly and time-consuming CNC machining of early prototypes, saving three days on each new product. For more organic shapes like the molded tubes in the cold-air intake kits, 3D printing makes it easy for Kroll’s team to test a wide range of sizes and shapes for performance and fit.

Prior to purchasing a ZPrinter, Steeda engineers would repeatedly go back and forth with moldmakers revising mold designs until they settled on the final shape and fit.

Now, when the design is done and ready for volume production, Kroll’s team simply provides the moldmaker with a final ZPrinted model. Instead of reading from plans, the moldmaker digitally scans the prototype and converts it into a mold. It’s always accurate on the first try. The new process saves time, money, and revision cycles.

Steeda occasionally bolts ZPrinted parts directly to an engine, as with an airflow measurement device that helps Steeda make critical design decisions. Here again, the company saves time and money over molded or machined parts. Kroll’s team also ZPrints prototypes to give the sales force a preview of upcoming products, as with the company’s new line of Spyder wheels.

“In prototyping, moldmaking and marketing, 3D printing models is helping us work faster, more cost-effectively and more accurately,” says Kroll. “ZPrinting was a gooddecision for us, and it’s good for drivers of the Mustang. ZPrinting just helps us develop a better-quality product.”

Images

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