Sheffield 3D printing experts give steel firm a competitive advantage

A Sheffield design and additive manufacturing business has developed a bespoke device giving a local steel firm a competitive advantage.

Addition Design, based at the Advanced Manufacturing Park Technology Centre in Sheffield, has successfully completed the project with Charles Day Steels, a specialist profile cutting service, using industrial 3D printing.

Charles Day Steels offer flame cutting as well as plasma, waterjet and laser cutting, investing in the latest cutting technology to provide customers with the best quality profile cut parts.

Tom Fripp, director at Addition Design said: “We were pleased to be able to provide Charles Day Steels with a solution that allows them to standardise their profile labelling process and scale this to their range of machines.

“We drafted and delivered a bespoke design working from concept to prototype before setting up the final design for on-demand production using our in-house industrial 3D printing facilities.

“This included reverse engineering, 3D CAD, concept design and prototyping. The final product has resulted in significant time and cost savings for the company.”

Previously the system required extensive time and labour, creating downtime for the machines, and a bottleneck for the company’s workflow.

James Day, business operations director at Charles Day Steels, said: “Addition are masters in applying the benefits of industrial 3D printing and, together with their expertise in design, they were quick to develop a solution to our production problem. They developed and supplied a bespoke device which supports our business and will give us a competitive advantage through a professionally delivered design and development project.”

The resulting device can be integrated across Charles Day Steels’ facility to deliver significant time and cost savings.

To read the case study on this project please click here