• Thanks to high-performance thermoplastic resin and ABS-M30i
  biocompatible 3D printing material, UPSA is now able to replace metal
  parts in some applications and reverse engineer components for part
  replacement
• Creation of lightweight 3D printed parts decreases part weight by
  70 percent, which reduces machine wear-and-tear, in turn extending
  productivity and machine longevity

MINNEAPOLIS & REHOVOT, Israel–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stratasys
(NASDAQ: SSYS), a global leader in applied additive technology
solutions, has announced that leading French pharmaceuticals company, UPSA,
is reinvigorating its manufacturing workshop and enjoying cost
reductions of as much 95 percent on some processes, since integrating
Stratasys additive manufacturing. The impact on UPSA’s operations has
been immediate and positive, with the investment paying for itself
within just one year of arrival.

The company, which is owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb, identified additive
manufacturing as a means to revitalize its in-house workshop and attract
the next generation of technicians. UPSA also sees the technology as the
key to overcoming production-line challenges, which had previously
limited the number of machine parts it was able to make via traditional
manufacturing methods.

“We identified 3D printing as a possible solution to our needs and made
an estimate of all the parts we could 3D print to see if we could save
manufacturing costs and reduce our stock of parts,” explains Mathieu
Dumora, Project Manager in UPSA’s Technical and Infrastructure
Department. “We quickly realized that by using 3D printed parts, we
could reduce part weight by 70 percent, which reduces machine
wear-and-tear, and has a big impact on productivity and machine
longevity.”

Ninety-five percent cost reduction on just one part alone

This positive evaluation led to UPSA’s investment in a Stratasys
Fortus 450mc™ Production 3D Printer, which proved an immediate
success by quickly delivering substantial efficiency savings for the
company not least in the area of critical parts replacement, which, as
Dumora explains, was a key priority.

“One machine in our manufacturing and packaging line is a heavy cast
steel arm, used as part of the operation to grip and suction open a
folding carton, so that blister packs can be inserted,” he explains.

“These arms are heavy, can become distorted, and sometimes fail and
break the machine, but using a 3D printed arm is safer. The ABS-M30i
biocompatible 3D printing material can recover if it distorts, but if it
breaks, it’s a minimal cost and a short printing time to replace. That’s
a huge improvement over a costly steel one. In one year alone, we
produced 55 of these parts and made a 95 percent cost reduction on each.”

Additive manufacturing helps replace time-consuming and expensive
visual inspections

UPSA also uses its Fortus 450mc Production 3D Printer to build a device
to improve the safety of the closure caps for its Efferalgan
(paracetamol) for children, after some caps were received from the
supplier with particles that could have inadvertently posed a risk of
contamination to the medication. The device has proven so successful
that UPSA has been able to discontinue the time-consuming and expensive
visual inspections that were previously deployed.

“We developed a system that sucks and blows air to remove any
particles,” says Dumora. “We test the air suctioned, and even sometimes
place particles in caps to test efficacy. Thanks to additive
manufacturing, we are able to make this solution ourselves and evolve it
through development iterations quickly and cost-effectively.”

Part consolidation contributes to huge first-year savings

UPSA is also witnessing significant savings thanks to its deployment of
Stratasys additive manufacturing for the production of camera mounts on
the manufacturing line.

“We apply track-and-trace coding to our packaging, and to ensure these
are being properly printed, a camera is mounted above each one,”
explains Dumora. “One of our design engineers used the Fortus 450mc to
create the shape he needed, before using it to make 22 units – one for
each machine. Prior to this innovation, an assembly of 27 parts was
needed; the new design has just two parts, which has seen us enjoy a
significant reduction in production time and cost.”

“Needless to say, for those of us who use it, the Fortus 450mc is an
absolute work-horse, but it’s immediate and positive impact is
ultimately underscored by the fact that in the first year of integrating
the machine, we more than made a return on our investment,” concludes
Dumora.

“We continue to see an increasing demand for 3D printed tooling,
production parts and replacement parts for industrial machinery,” says
Andy Middleton, President, Stratasys, EMEA. “The speed at which UPSA has
successfully integrated our 3D printer within production and
realized such a huge quantifiable ROI, is testament to the way this
technology can quickly and cost-effectively overcome production-line
challenges for manufacturers in most industry sectors.”

Stratasys is a global leader in applied additive technology solutions
for industries including Aerospace, Automotive, Healthcare, Consumer
Products and Education. For nearly 30 years, a deep and ongoing focus on
customers’ business requirements has fueled purposeful innovations—1,200
granted and pending additive technology patents to date—that create new
value across product lifecycle processes, from design prototypes to
manufacturing tools and final production parts. The Stratasys 3D
printing ecosystem of solutions and expertise—advanced materials;
software with voxel level control; precise, repeatable and reliable FDM
and PolyJet 3D printers; application-based expert services; on-demand
parts and industry-defining partnerships—works to ensure seamless
integration into each customer’s evolving workflow. Fulfilling the
real-world potential of additive, Stratasys delivers breakthrough
industry-specific applications that accelerate business processes,
optimize value chains and drive business performance improvements for
thousands of future-ready leaders around the world.

Corporate Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota and Rehovot, Israel.
Online at: www.stratasys.com,
http://blog.stratasys.com and
LinkedIn.

Stratasys, FDM, and Fortus are registered trademarks and FDM Nylon 12CF
and the Stratasys signet are trademarks of Stratasys Ltd. and/or its
subsidiaries or affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of
their respective owners.

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