As AM evolves, so does RedEye’s business model

Today, the company’s evolution reflects the changing demands of manufacturing, specifically that of moldmaking’s role in product development. According to Jeff Hanson, business development manager for RedEye, customers were moving away from just visual, conceptual prototype parts to functional models and end-use parts.

“Customers were ordering prototype parts out of ABS or some other thermoplastic we offer, and going to field trials or beta testing with them,” Hanson said. “The key for us was to find the emotion of the customer and push that button. For 60% of manufacturers, the designs submitted to moldmakers for tooling development had to be modified. That’s when I started migrating toward manufacturing and reaching out to product development engineers and purchasing people with the next phase of this evolving industry.”

While prototypes were good ‘feeders’ into RedEye’s business, they wanted the manufacturing, and the new buzz word in the industry to define this evolution was Additive Manufacturing (AM).

Tool alterations as a bottleneck
Finding out where RedEye could fit into the supply chain of product development meant finding the pain points of the OEM. “Tool modification is the bottleneck in product development,” explained Hanson. “The process usually involved designers going to the purchasing agent who would then get the mold quotes from the moldmaker. As the mold was designed and steel started to be cut, the engineers defined areas that needed design modifications. This process put product development at risk, often resulting in programs being over-budget and late.”

Additive manufacturing is a way of mitigating those risks, which means OEMs are more on target in their product launches. To promote this positioning, RedEye began adding specific terms to its web site such as “no capital investment up front.” That told customers ‘don’t invest in a mold yet—ride it out with additive manufacturing and mitigate the risk factor.’

“If you submit your design directly to tooling, it’s become static,” Hanson said. “But with additive manufacturing it’s dynamic. With the ability to modify designs on the fly, we can make changes to the part without penalties in cost or time.”  
Another constraint with tooling is the draft angles required. Engineers often submit the part design to tooling only to find it must be redesigned for manufacturability. “Additive manufacturing gives you freedom of design without constraints, and you can produce better product,” Hanson stated.

From selling prototypes to delivering production parts
With all the ‘buzz words’ added to RedEye’s marketing message, the orders started getting bigger, including one half-million dollar order for end-use parts from a customer. “Suddenly we were selling production parts, not prototypes,” said Hanson. “That development became the catalyst for the change in Stratasys’ and RedEye’s business model. We did a study of where our parts were going and the results of that changed the game for the company to move from ‘rapid prototyping’ to actual manufacturing.”

Because of Stratasys’ ability to produce AM parts from real thermoplastic materials vs. “plastic-like” materials in the company’s FDM process, RedEye has become a true product-development company. With the recent addition of Objet to Stratasys’ business, Hanson said that RedEye can provide complete solutions from prototypes using Objet’s process, which has a strong role in the conceptual modeling and prototype phases of product development.
 
“We’ve been using Objet’s process for the last seven years,” Hanson noted of the recent purchase of Objet by Stratasys. “Each technology is a bridge to the next technology we offer. For example, depending on geometry and application, Polyjet can be a bridge to FDM. The technologies are complementary. We use all the processes harmoniously along the product development path until customers get to the point of needing tooling and molded parts.”

Drinking the Kool-Aid
As RedEye On Demand has moved into manufacturing, Hanson is picking up on trends, specifically he’s seeing less resistance from moldmakers and injection molders to work with RedEye. “The moldmakers and injection molders are starting to drink our Kool-Aid, adding additive manufacturing to their product portfolio, and coming to us if they don’t have in-house AM capabilities.”
 
Working in tandem with mold manufacturers and injection molders, RedEye can quick-turn a project and get the customer parts in hand where they can identify design flaws and make dimensional or functional changes virtually overnight. Multiple iterations of design can be produced so that the tooling design can be solidified.

“If I was a moldmaker I’d bring this technology in house as a way to get additional margins,” Hanson said. “The AM process helps them find new customers and develop the molding process, and can be used as an early relationship builder, enabling them to win customers at the front end of a project and convert that to a high-volume mold down the road when the product has been determined viable.”
 
Today, the molders and moldmakers RedEye works with are adopting this business model. Because of RedEye’s capacity and capabilities in all phases of product development, they use RedEye as a bridge to take their customers from prototypes to full production tooling.

While prices have come down on most AM production equipment, it’s still a “cost issue” for many moldmaking companies, Hanson added. “As price goes down and awareness among OEMs increases, the early adopters will bring systems in house."