{"id":40488,"date":"2020-06-16T11:18:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T15:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=40488"},"modified":"2022-04-12T21:19:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T01:19:13","slug":"how-my-track-technology-uses-3d-printing-for-their-remote-all-terrain-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/how-my-track-technology-uses-3d-printing-for-their-remote-all-terrain-vehicle","title":{"rendered":"How My Track Technology Uses 3D Printing for Their Remote All-Terrain Vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Track Technology<\/a> (MTT) is an eco-friendly, electric remote-controlled track vehicle built to operate in extreme terrains. Its low center of gravity, resistance to the elements and autonomy make it a crucial new tool for a wide range of civilian and military applications including emergency and disaster rescues and agricultural functions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partnered with Shapeways, the makers of MTT were able to use 3D printing to cut substantial time and costs in their production process by rapidly prototyping<\/a> designs and printing strong, end-use ready parts that can resist the elements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We interviewed Michael Martel from MTT to find out how MTT has utilized Shapeways’ 3D printing technology to ramp up production with speed and efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your name and your role at My Track Technology?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My name is Michael\nMartel and I\u2019m in charge of the MTT product development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did My Track Technology start<\/strong>?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

10 years ago my\nfather and I were discussing a product that can enhance human power but as\nsmall as possible to be able to go where a person can walk. The main goal was\nto be able to get someone that is injured out of deep forest and at the same\ntime bring reduced mobility\npersons to extreme places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From a sketch in 2010 (left) to a fully functional machine in 2020 (right).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What kinds of customers can MTT benefit?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our customers are very broad. First, there is the military for rescue and material carrying. Mining for carrying material underground without any fumes and CO2 that has to be ventilated out of the mine. Wildfire suppression help, carrying water pumps and equipment. Also fat bike trails grooming, for agriculture use on wet fields or carrying a freezer in the field for fruits and vegetable harvesting. Replacing a generator on construction sites with MTT-154 onboard 2000W inverter, and much much more.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My Track Technology’s machine used in rescue and rapid intervention.
Photo source: My Track Technology<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How did you find Shapeways?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Four years\nago one of my electronic employees bought a cheap FDM printer that he assembled himself. At that time I was very skeptical of 3D printing,\nI was thinking it was only for toys and figurines. Nevertheless I let him try\nsome joystick parts. I was at the time building it with a laser cut aluminum\nsheet, bent and welded to make an enclosed case. His part with FDM (PLA) was so successful that we\nused it for our vehicle for about a year, very amazing. The problem with this\npart was the surface finish, time to print and resistance to wet environments.\nI was so impressed by this test that I decided\nto learn more on 3D printing methods, suppliers and more. This is when I came\nto Shapeways\u2019 website and was very impressed\nby the technical information and production\ncapabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then decided to\nmanufacture a couple of parts at Shapeways and I have\nnever been disappointed since. Shapeways is not the\nleast expensive but I tested many suppliers over the years and I did a lot of\ncold temperature testing. Shapeways always has the strongest and nicer finished parts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unless you have $100,000 or more to invest in an SLS or HP printer you will never have the quality, robustness, precision and surface finish of a Shapeways part.<\/p>

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What are the benefits of using Shapeways over an in-office printer?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When buying a printer you have an amazing amount of choice offered to you. The problem is to have a printer for all of the applications. The size of the parts, the surface finish, the resistance and the productivity of this printer are all to be considered. Unless you have $100,000 or more to invest in an SLS or HP printer you will never have the quality, robustness, precision and surface finish of a Shapeways part. Shapeways is a one-stop shop for 3D printing projects. They have multiple machines to accommodate all the requirements of all special projects. So for us Shapeways has been a great partner to reach all of our goals, present and future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the benefits of 3D printing with Shapeways over other manufacturing methods?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Speed, cost and simplicity. When our 3D drawing is finished we don\u2019t have to produce fabrication drawings. We just upload the 3D file on Shapeways\u2019 website. Very simple. We also do not have to build a mold for 1 up to 50 parts. It\u2019s very great cost saving. Later when the design is perfect we can build a mold and be confident that the mold will meet our requirements. We are also not limited to a particular shape with 3D printing, practically every shape is possible. Finally, the precision, repeatability and tolerances are better than most of the others manufacturing methods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>

“The precision, repeatability and tolerances [of 3D printing technology] are better than most of the others manufacturing methods<\/p>

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What aspect of My Track Technology production do you use 3D printing and Shapeways for?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We are right now\nmoving to production and most of the parts that had previously been tested with\n3D printing are now thermo or injection molded. 3D printing saves us an amazing amount of money by testing\ndifferent designs quickly. When the design is\nconfirmed the mold can be built with the peace of mind that this part works perfectly well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other 10 parts\nthat are needed for an\nMTT-154 2020 will continue to be built with 3D\nprinting technologies. Up to about 100 MTT-154 units per year it totally makes\nsense to print parts in Nylon. We save the initial cost of the mold and we can design parts\nthat are impossible to manufacture with a traditional mold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What materials do you use?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Right now we mostly use SLS, with Nylon PA12<\/a> (Versatile Plastic), dyed black. We also use rubber like TPU to create custom grommets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does working with Shapeways affect the speed of your manufacturing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In our MTT machine there are about 20 plastic parts. Last year we were in a very big rush to do a test with the US military and we had no time to build 20 molds for every single part. We saved at least 6 months (concept, drawing for molding, mold building and parts production) by 3D printing with Shapeways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about any cost savings?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For 20 plastic parts the average cost of a mold is $3500 * 20 = 70,000 USD. This money would have been a very big gamble knowing that we were unsure if these parts would meet the functionality, design and resistance we needed. $70K is a lot of money for a startup. It\u2019s manageable, but $70K without any guarantee that this mold will be useful in the future is unacceptable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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