Customer story · Bellweather Packaging · Greenville, SC
5 weeks
became 2 days.
Gripper fingers, printed in a tough nylon instead of machined from aluminum. 60% lighter. Changeovers cut from 45 minutes to 15.
We used to order a finger and wait 5 weeks for it. Now I print one on Tuesday and it's on the line Thursday.
Marcus Delgado, Plant Engineer, Bellweather Packaging (sample)
The piece that touches the product.
A gripper finger is the small part at the end of a robot arm that closes on the package. On Bellweather Packaging's line in Greenville, South Carolina, the fingers hold each carton as the line moves it. They wear, they get swapped when the line changes format, and the line only runs when the right set is on hand.
Cut from a block. Then wait.
Every finger began as a block of aluminum. The plant sent a drawing to a machine shop, the shop cut the part and shipped it back: 5 weeks from order to part in hand. The fingers came out heavier than the job required, and changeovers ran 45 minutes while the line waited on metal parts to arrive and be fitted.
Aluminum, then nylon.
The part didn't change its job. It changed where it comes from.
Same finger. New material. New address.
Bellweather moved the gripper finger to an industrial 3D printer on its own floor and to a tough nylon. The design file became the inventory. A new finger now takes 2 days, and when the line needs a different shape, the change happens in the file, not at a vendor.
What changed, in five figures.
Lead time for a new gripper finger.
Line changeover, with a new set ready the next morning.
Printed nylon against machined aluminum.
Printed in-house, as the line needs them.
Built for a part that grips, wears and gets replaced.
Each finger is 60% lighter. The arm quit hauling around metal it never needed.
Marcus Delgado, Plant Engineer, Bellweather Packaging (sample)
Ready by morning.
The printer runs while the plant sleeps. When a changeover is on tomorrow's schedule, the new set is printed tonight and sitting at the line the next morning. The crew swaps fingers instead of waiting for them: 15 minutes, down from 45.
A changeover used to be 45 minutes. It's 15 now, because the new set printed overnight and it's already on my bench.
Marcus Delgado, Plant Engineer, Bellweather Packaging (sample)
We go through about 1,400 fingers a year, all in a tough nylon. When one wears out, I don't send a purchase order. I print the next one.
Marcus Delgado, Plant Engineer, Bellweather Packaging (sample)
Every machined part has a wait hiding in it.
Bellweather found theirs in a gripper finger. Bring us the part on your line that you wait longest for, and we'll show you what it looks like printed.