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Rosti: Turning ideas into reality with Ultimaker
A streamlined design process workflow with the Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle
For over 75 years, Rosti has delivered innovative solutions to its customers. Rosti provides injection molding and contract manufacturing services to a wide range of industries—including packaging, consumer and business appliances, automotive, and healthcare and medical. Their long-standing success is built on creating partnerships with customers and helping them achieve their goals using state-of-the-art technology, flexibility, and integrity, all with a consistent focus on sustainability from concept through to production.
Bringing Product Designs to Life
Smart hands-free hygiene devices, an IoT consumer face care product with app connectivity, a COVID testing medical diagnostic device, and an award-winning UV water purification product.
These are just a few of the innovations Rosti has designed, developed, and delivered in recent years for its valued customers. With a broad portfolio of technologies such as mold decoration, heating and cooling, multi-shot molding, liquid silicone rubber injection molding (LSR LIM), and injection blow molding, Rosti drives global impact for its customers through innovation.
With a streamlined 3D printing process and 3D printing equipment capable of keeping pace with their operations and expansion, Rosti has been able to further reduce time to market for its customers.
While these product development achievements are now commonplace at Rosti, the company has continually sought ways to accelerate the product development cycle even more.
Time, Trials, and Tribulations
Three years ago, Rosti faced challenges in manufacturing assembly fixtures quickly and cost-effectively. The prototyping methods they had used no longer met customers’ time requirements. Outsourcing additive manufacturing seemed like a potential solution to reduce lead time, but this quickly created bottlenecks for customers eager to bring their products to market as fast as possible.
After researching various models of fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers, Rosti began using an Ultimaker 3 Extended 3D printer. It was a hit in terms of both value for money and cost efficiency—especially considering the large volumes of prints that had to be produced.
That volume kept increasing. This meant Rosti needed to expand its 3D printing capabilities with the Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle, which let the company use fiber-reinforced 3D printing filament—a game changer when it came to print quality and results.
A Streamlined Design Process Workflow
Since adopting the Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle, Rosti has been able to create fixtures and assembly parts just as strong as those made using subtractive methods such as CNC machining. These parts were suitable for testing and could also be used in production environments without breaking or sustaining damage.
“With the Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle, we can now print high-strength and high-temperature materials at a fraction of the previous cost,” Scott Dickson, NPD Manager of Rosti Suzhou, said.
The integration of the Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle into Rosti’s design process was smooth, since Rosti had been using Ultimaker 3D printers for years. The Rosti design team was already familiar with the Ultimaker platform, which they leveraged with Ultimaker Cura—allowing them to fine-tune project designs—and the new CC print core, which delivers high precision and durability, even with fiber-reinforced filament.
All printing is done in Rosti’s Innovation Lab, where the design team focuses on increasing the speed at which they can deliver new products to consumer markets—successfully providing product samples within 72 hours.
However, Rosti doesn’t just use 3D printing for customers. With growing expertise in FFF, Rosti’s production staff are now able to suggest new project and design concepts for the company itself, including those aimed at improving productivity and health and safety.
Ideas come from many different departments throughout the factory, while Rosti’s design and development teams bring those ideas to life using the Ultimaker S5 printer.
A Higher Level of Performance
Rosti’s competitive advantage is rooted in developing new technology to further reduce costs and time to market for its global customers. Here, Ultimaker plays a vital role—empowering Rosti to quickly produce and iterate on parts and fixtures that are continuously improved based on feedback and real-life usage.
