The company in focus
mayer-technology from Heilbronn is a company of the Mayer Group and bundles the know-how in the area of production and machines within the group.
Additive manufacturing technology achieves a process-optimized increase in productivity and machine utilization as well as a stabilization of the supply chain.
Project goals
Interrupted supply chain led to machine downtime
In March 2020, one of Europe's leading groups in the production and distribution of shipping and packaging solutions faced the challenge of an interrupted supply chain. A huge volume of spare parts could no longer be supplied, which in turn led to machine downtime.
As a leading manufacturer that produces products for global mail order companies, among others, the failure of a production machine can lead to major challenges. Every year, around 16 billion envelopes are produced on 136 roll-fed and 59 sheet-fed machines!
Ralph Schneider, Head of mayer-technology, came across the innovative technology of industrial Markforged 3D printers through a partner company.
He had the vision of being able to cover at least 10 % of the Group's machine spare parts volume with the help of this technology.
At a glance
Solution
Additive manufacturing with composite materials
The result exceeded all expectations. mayer-technology is on hand with full expertise for all of the Group's production sites in Europe to provide advice and support. One of the company's goals is the central procurement, simplification and standardization of all spare parts.
This in turn resulted in a technology hub, an online store through which all machine spare parts are already available to all Mayer Group locations throughout Europe. The additively manufactured machine spare parts are already sorted by packaging unit and can be ordered at the touch of a button.
Availability, independence and innovation
mayer-technology itself is now facing gigantic savings. Numerous components achieve savings of up to 90 %. The availability, independence and innovative possibilities of the company are now at a completely new level.
Missing design data is created using reverse engineering or manual drawing. Markforged 3D printers offer an ideal solution, particularly for discontinued or hard-to-find machine spare parts. With their precision, reliability and strength, several hundred components can already be substituted today.
At mayer-technology, additive manufacturing already goes far beyond rapid prototyping and is already a fully-fledged manufacturing technology!
How can plastic components achieve the necessary strength?
mayer-technology relies on composite fiber technology from the Markforged Mark Two and X7 3D printers.
The base material is Onyx. A PA6 with 15 % carbon short fiber content. Using a second nozzle in the print head, the components can be reinforced with a continuous fiber made of carbon, Aramit (Kevlar®) or glass fiber. Depending on the application, the different fibers offer different added value. The continuous fiber has only one start and one end point per layer. The position of the fiber can be individually selected in the Eiger software.
Thanks to Markforged's industrial 3D printers, the material carbon can now be used like a block of aluminum, achieving strengths that exceed aluminum with excellent surface accuracy.
For larger components and parts made from Ulthem™ 9085 filament, Ralph Schneider will be using the new Markforged FX20 in future.
Heavy metal from the Markforged Metal X
With the Markforged Metal X system, components can be manufactured from different metals in a completely new form. The system is also based on the classic layering process. The components are then washed and sintered. In addition to 1.4542 stainless steel (17-4), copper (99.8 %) and 1.7744 Inconel (625), various tool steels are also available. Even larger components, even shorter delivery times. The print farm of mayer-technology GmbH & Co. KG is growing steadily and currently comprises almost 20 3D printers.
"The opportunities that Markforged technology offers us,
have revolutionized the spare parts business."
- Ralph Schneider, Head of mayer-technology GmbH &
Co. KG
Request a DEMO component now!
See for yourself how strong the components are.
The Digital Forge
When you walk through the production area at mayer-technology, you quickly notice that each individually printed component has a serial number or component ID. "If a component or part of an assembly is damaged or worn, a replacement part can be reprinted on demand. This avoids long delivery times and warehousing costs, explains Ralph Schneider. It also eliminates warehousing costs. The warehouse is now located on the roll of filament. In addition, the entire system can be operated very easily using the plug & play method, he adds.
The future
Partner for external spare parts management
Time is money. Solve your spare parts procurement using industrial 3D printing. From now on, mayer-technology will make its additive machinery and expertise available not only internally but also to external companies. This means that long delivery times and supply chain dependencies are a thing of the past. A solution can be found for almost any initial situation - with savings of up to 90 %.
The volume of additively manufactured spare parts at mayer-technology will continue to increase in the future.
Roller before / after comparison
Would you like a live demo, have questions or need a quote for a Markforged 3D printer?
Contact us now!
Mark3D GmbH
Rodenbacher Straße 15
35708 Haiger
Phone: 07361 63396 00
E-mail: markforged@mark3d.de
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