trinckle has more deeply integrated with Stratasys’ GrabCAD.
We’re big fans of trinckle, but if you don’t know who they are, you should. They provide an easy-to-use application suite that can very quickly design tools and manufacturing aids.
Why is this important? It’s because jigs and fixtures are one of the more obvious use cases for the technology. The idea is that workers in factories are the ones who come up with new ideas for gadgets to help smooth the manufacturing process, but how do they get these new tools?
Normally, they’d pass a request up the line that would eventually land at the company’s CAD team, who no doubt have higher priority things to do. Perhaps at some point they’d whip up a design for the tool and it would be dispatched for printing.
In other words, the turnaround is really slow.
That’s surprising, because the ability to print something quickly has been around for quite a while. In fact, those factory workers could literally have their own 3D printer right beside them, ready to produce tools on demand.
Except they need the 3D design of that tool before it can be printed.
This is where Trinckle comes in. It’s designed to be used by almost anyone, even those very factory workers. This means that, in theory, they could come up with an idea, create the design with Trinckle, and print it out all in a matter of hours.
If they can get that new tool on the production floor faster, that can potentially increase throughput or quality.
What can be made with Trinckle? It turns out they have a ton of ready-to-go applications, such as robotic fingers, shadow boards, clamping jaws, and logistics trays. They are also planning to release more apps in the future, including drill guides, 3D-printable breakoff labels, and part masking tools.
The news this week is that Trinckle has struck a deal with Stratasys to integrate their application suite into GrabCAD, Stratasys’ 3D printer management tool. They explain:
“Trinckle and Stratasys today announced an expansion of their partnership to include distribution of the Additive App Suite through GrabCAD Print and Print Pro software, broadening Trinckle’s distribution channels and making it available to more manufacturers worldwide.”
GrabCAD Print comes with every Stratasys machine, so this means that anyone buying Stratasys equipment will have access to Trinckle.
This is quite interesting because it transforms Stratasys’ offer to factories into a single operation: buy this machine and you ALSO get the design capabilities to immediately make tools on demand. If the factory floor has the budget for the machine, they get everything they need immediately. No need to bug the CAD department ever again.
In the end, this should result in more sales for Stratasys, and more people using Trinckle’s application suite.
Via trinckle
