Alan Bradshw, owner of Idaho Steel, said: “We needed to come up with a better way to build shapes quicker for our customers so that they could in turn be a better tool for their customers as they provided and brought products to market.”
The lights out operating methodology of 3D printing allows Idaho to run the machine for the 90 hours continuously. Using the ProX 500 SLS machine Idaho claims to have reduced part production time from 25 days to four.
Jon Christensen, sales and marketing, Idaho Steel, said: “This saves time, but also opens up those machines that would be tied up for those 25 days to really give us added throughput through our shop.”
Bradshaw added: “The ability to 3D print gives us the ability to design and manufacture better machines.”