Functional Prototyping

Toro sees savings of $500,000, and a 283-week reduction in product-development time

Traditional prototyping costs would have been prohibitive for such a large-scale project

 

Strength Under Pressure:
Toro’s irrigation-products division built a commercial sprinkler prototype with a tough requirement — be strong enough to handle the water pressure of real-life application. Design engineers used FDM to make several iterations of 12 assembly components. The polycarbonate prototype assembly withstood functional tests at pressures up to 100psi. To tool a traditional prototype and make changes to refine the design, the costs would have been prohibitive for such a large-scale project.

ROI:
For this and other sprinkler projects at Toro, over two years, FDM reduced product-development time by an incredible 283 weeks — and saved $500,000 dollars on tooling and service-bureau costs.

Other Benefits:
Toro says FDM produced accurate prototypes and took only a few hours for a typical component. And the material for FDM is inexpensive so Toro could build 60 to 70 parts with a single spool of plastic.

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