Oshkosh Corporation
Oshkosh Corporation joined the consortium in 2000. Several areas of their product development activities have benefited including:
- New product development through the conceptualization of ideas in physical 3D prototypes to convey design intent, verify form, fi t and function in order to achieve a high level of design maturity, allowing an early product entry to the market.
- High quality, robust prototypes that have effi ciently supplemented development of tooling for a variety of functional prototypes used in durability testing.
- Development of new materials has given design and test engineers new opportunities to directly produce short run lots of functional, production-level components without a need for tooling.
“The RPC off ers direct around-the-clock access to additive manufacturing technologies, equipment and materials supported by industry-leading turnaround times on prototypes. But our relationship does not end with building prototypes. The experienced and highly motivated team of professionals and students offers such value-added services as 3D light-scanning, metrology, computer-aided design, data translation, small lot silicone and injection molding, etc.
“The consortium enables Oshkosh Corporation’s design engineers to be a part of the information exchange directed at discovering new technologies, improvements in design techniques and problem solving. Meetings have created
a great opportunity to network with fellow members, discuss developments in the field of additive manufacturing, and voice wishes for new technologies, materials and methods to be brought to the consortium to expand the design toolbox.”
— Vadim Pikhovich, senior principal engineer of materials and process engineering at Oshkosh Corporation
Johnson Controls
“Leveraging MSOE’s rapid prototyping capabilities allows Johnson Controls to provide physical demonstrations of our simulations and designs to accelerate our time-to-market. The center at MSOE is an efficient resource for Johnson Controls that delivers short turnaround times with detailed, dimensionally accurate form prototypes of advanced batteries and systems concepts. We are able to then test and analyze these product concepts before transitioning to our own world-class manufacturing facilities throughout the world.
“The RPC at MSOE has partnered with Johnson Controls on some of our most advanced energy storage projects to accelerate our analysis and confirm product designs including our Micro Hybrid activities.”
— MaryAnn Wright, VP of technology and innovation for Johnson Controls Power Solutions
Pentair
“I view MSOE’s RPC as an extension of my engineering department. I have not been able to present them with a project that they could not assist with. The RPC provides my team with solutions that result in our products coming to market faster with the features that our customers demand. The prototype components have been designed
and manufactured with the features that we require, including the ability to test them while fully submerged
in water.
“In addition to the traditional composite prototype materials, the RPC has assisted Pentair with metal prototypes from rapid tools. Having prototype components built from the production intent materials allows us to understand actual performance characteristics, including eff ects from surface finish. The end result is that we have a high level of confidence in our designs prior to releasing expensive production tooling.”
— Chris Lange, director of engineering/flow technologiesat Pentair
