THE 3D PRINTING SOLUTIONS COMPANY™

A P P L I C AT I O N C U S T O M E R S T O RY:

Oreck Corporation

SITUATIONThe Oreck Corporation, based in Nashville,

Tennessee, is a well-respected manufacturer of

vacuum cleaners, sweepers, and other household

cleaning appliances for use in hotels and homes

throughout the world. Within the vacuum cleaning

category alone, Oreck offers nearly 20 unique

models which are valued for being lightweight,

exceptionally durable and easy-to-use.

Every new Oreck vacuum incorporates 20-30

complex injection-molded parts that must meet

specific dimensional tolerance requirements to

ensure proper assembly and performance. Before

production can begin, samples of each part are

created for testing. These are called First Articles.

Each First Article is inspected by a coordinate

measuring machine (CMM) prior to shipment of the

mold to the manufacturing facility, and once again

before the mold is placed into production. During

each inspection, the First Articles must be held

FDM Technology Helps Oreck’s Quality Control Team Perform

2,900% Faster

“FDM technology enables us to give the go-ahead to start production weeks earlier than in the past.”

– Craig Ulmer, Senior QA Labs Technician, Oreck

S T R ATA S Y S . C O M

HOW DOES FDM COMPARE TO TRADITIONAL TOOLING METHODS FOR ORECK?

METHODPRODUCTION TIME

COSTINSPECTION TIME

CNC 7 hours $250 30 days

FDM 3.5 hours $55 1 day

SAVINGS 3.5 hours (50%) $195 (78%)

29 days 2900% improvement

A P P L I C AT I O N C U S T O M E R S T O RY:

Oreck Corporation

rigidly in place. Should a First Article shift during

the inspection process, the CMM will register a

false failure.

For the test, Oreck’s quality control team manually

placed a variety of modular aluminum clamps to

hold the First Article in place. This pain-staking

process generally took 30 minutes to complete

and was then followed-up by two to four hours of

CMM programming time. Consequently the total

time needed to test all of the First Articles required

for production of a new vacuum model was

approximately 30 days. If a defect was found –

which happened at the rate of once a month – the

timeline was further delayed while the QC team

investigated the problem.

SOLUTIONOne day the supervisor of the modeling shop

proposed a new idea. Oreck was already building

Fused Deposition ModelingTM (FDM®) prototypes

in its model shop; why couldn’t they create custom

fixtures for use in the First Article inspection?

This idea revolutionized the First Article approval

process. Thanks to FDM TechnologyTM, which

builds plastic parts layer-by-layer using data from

computer aided design (CAD) files, Oreck can now

create customized fixtures that are specifically

designed to quickly and perfectly position each

Modular clamps were used in the past to hold First Articles during inspection.

CAD drawing of a First Article.

First Articles mounted in FDM fixtures (white ABS-M30) on CMM table.

ORECK CORPORATION / 2

A P P L I C AT I O N C U S T O M E R S T O RY:

Oreck Corporation

First Article for testing, thereby eliminating the need

for manual placement. Furthermore they can create

an FDM prototype of the First Article, which when

used in conjunction with the complementary fixture,

allows the QC department to preprogram the CMM

while the actual First Article is in production.

RESULTSToday, the opportunity for testing error has

been virtually eliminated, and the quality control

process that previously took a month to complete

can be done in one day — a 2,900% improvement.

“The accuracy and consistency of FDM allows us

to move the programming stage up in the process,

and essentially remove the First Article inspection

process from the critical path in the new product

development schedule. This makes it possible to

start production faster,” said Craig Ulmer, Senior

QA Labs Technician for Oreck.

First Article inspection of this part was completed within minutes because the CMM was able to be pre-programmed using an FDM protoype (white ABS-M30).

First Article shown as part of assembly.

Oreck has built many FDM fixtures (white ABS-M30) for CMM inspection.

ORECK CORPORATION / 3

info@stratasys.com

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+972 74 745-4000

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ISO 9001:2008 Certified © 2015 Stratasys Ltd. All rights reserved. Stratasys, FDM and Fortus are registered trademarks and Fused Deposition Modeling, FDM Technology, Fortus 250mc, Fortus 360mc, Fortus 400mc, Fortus 900mc, Insight and Control Center are trademarks of Stratasys Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. ULTEM™ is a registered trademark of SABIC or affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Printed in the USA. ACS_FDM_Oreck_JigsFixtures_A4_1115

The information contained herein is for general reference purposes only and may not be suitable for your situation. As such, Stratasys does not warranty this information. For assistance concerning your specific application, consult a Stratasys application engineer. To ensure user safety, Stratasys recommends reading, understanding, and adhering to the safety and usage directions for all Stratasys and other manufacturers’ equipment and products. In addition, when using products like paints, solvents, epoxies, Stratasys recommends that users perform a product test on a sample part or a non-critical area of the final part to determine product suitability and prevent part damage.

For more information about Stratasys systems, materials and applications, call 888.480.3548 or visit www.stratasys.com

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