Case Study

Compositex
Transforms its
CompositeProduction
With FDM
AdditiveManufacturing

Continuous innovation and acustomized approach to ourservice offering have always
been central to our company’svision and strategy.”
Gabriele Fanton, Business Unit Manager

Compositex

2Continuous
Innovation witha Customized
Approach
Founded in 1986 in Vicenza, Italy, Compositex
specializes in the development and manufactureof structural composite components. An
established supplier to the aerospace andmotorsport industries, the company has built astrong reputation for its ability to design, developand deliver tailored solutions. Leveraging its
30-year expertise and in-house cutting-edge
technologies, Compositex provides its clientswith full-service design and manufacturing
capabilities ranging from project design to themanufacture of models and molds.

Not only did we halve theproduction time and savearound 20% in costs, but wewere also able to fully satisfy
the customer’s expectations.”
Gabriele Fanton, Business Unit Manager

Compositex“Continuous innovation and a customized
approach to our service offering have always
been central to our company’s vision andstrategy,” said Gabriele Fanton, business unit
manager at Compositex. “Each of our clientscomes to us with different yet demanding
manufacturing requirements, so it’s vital wedeploy the most advanced technologies available
to ensure we effectively fulfill their needs.”
To address ever-changing industry demands
and maintain its competitive edge, Compositex
invests significant resources to enhance its
production equipment and support R&D.
This has established the company as aninternational leader in prepreg technology forcomposite production. However, to meet highcustomer expectations in a more cost- andtime-effective way, Compositex turned toadditive manufacturing to strengthen its
production capability.

Case Study

The Fortus 450mc 3D printer at Compositex’s production facility.

3Reinventing Traditional Composite
Production With Additive Manufacturing
Having explored a number of 3D printing
technologies, Compositex approached Stratasys
local partner, Technimold, to purchase aFortus 450mc™, an industrial-grade FDM® 3D
printer designed to produce complex parts
using high-performance materials. The printer’scapabilities made an immediate impression,
particularly in the area of composite tooling. Thecompany now 3D prints a range of composite
tools, such as lay-ups, inserts and mandrels,
all key components of traditional prepreg
production. Manufacturing these tools in-house
lets Compositex eliminate costly outsourcing,while significantly reducing production leadtimes. More importantly, since using FDM
technology for composite tool production,
Compositex has achieved higher-quality results.

Case Study“We are currently producing water-soluble
mandrels 3D printed in ST-130™ material andthe results are outstanding,” explained Fanton.
“For example, in order to manufacture a drone
duct for one of our established customers, wewere able to use just one 3D printed watersoluble mandrel to complete production. To put
this into context, with conventional composite
tooling the creation of four female molds would
have been required, as well as additional millingand finishing operations. Not only did we halve
the production time and save around 20% incosts, but we were also able to fully satisfy thecustomer’s expectations in terms of the finishingof the internal side of the duct.”
Compositex is also using the Fortus 450mc
to 3D print customized parts. These include
aesthetic components and structural parts thatwould simply be too complex or cost-prohibitive
to produce using conventional methods, suchas the exterior body of remote-controlled
aircraft and drones, automotive air ducts, andmotorcycle handgrips. Use of the Fortus 450mc
and its high-performance materials, such as
ULTEM™ 9085 resin and FDM Nylon 12CF™, hasbeen crucial for the company in expanding its
services to meet the needs of a more diversified
customer base.

“Stratasys FDM additive manufacturing ensures
we can quickly and cost-effectively produce
certain final parts, which means we can now
respond to customer requests that we could
not fulfill before,” said Fanton. “We were asked
to produce an air conditioning duct for a historicsupercar which is no longer in production. We
reverse-engineered the original duct and then3D printed the part using carbon fiber-reinforced
FDM Nylon 12CF for the structural components
and ASA material for non-structural elements.
The result was exceptional, far beyond our —and our customer’s — initial expectations. In
fact, producing this obsolete part with traditional
manufacturing would have been impossible.”

Obsolete air conditioning duct for historic supercar that needed replacing.

Final air conditioning unit for the historic supercar, featuring the3D printed air duct produced in Nylon 12CF and ASA materials.

4This complex hollow composite part was made using an ST-130 3D printed mandrel (part of which is shown in the foreground)which halved production time and saved 20% in cost.

Building Upon Success, Layer-by-Layer
Compositex’s Fortus 450mc runs 24/7 andthose in charge of the 3D printing department
are keen on testing new production applications.
The team is also exploiting the features ofGrabCAD Print™ software to further streamline
workﬂow during design and development.
“The Fortus 450mc has changed our approachto business and we fully intend on continuing topush the boundaries of composite production
with this technology,” explained Fanton. “Infact, when it comes to finding manufacturingsolutions for our customers, we feel the only
limit is our imagination. Unlike other 3D printers
we’ve tried, the Fortus 450mc is suitable for themost-demanding production applications, while

the level of reliability and repeatability it provides
is essential for occasions where we try and test
unexplored solutions.”
Fanton concluded: “There is no going back.
Working closely together with Technimold, we
have been able to learn how to fully streamline
and optimize use of the technology. Gaining
this knowledge and having the local support
has been essential in identifying new
applications that can be enhanced withadditive manufacturing. We very much see
this technology as an important part of future
production and a key driver for us in attractingnew business opportunities.”

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