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TR Fastenings invests in new state of the art SLA 3D printer

By TR Fastenings on

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Global fastenings manufacturer and distributor, TR Fastenings, has invested in a new 3D printer. The printer is an SLA (StereoLithic Apparatus) machine which delivers a far superior quality to the FDM (Fused Deposit Modelling) equipment replacing the existing model.

Until recently, SLA printing was prohibitively expensive, but after a group of American MIT students designed and received funding for the ‘Form 1’ model, costs reduced. The Form 1 machine has now been replaced by the Form 2 model, which TR has purchased.

While most of the components supplied by TR to its customers are metal, plastic prototypes are ideal to check the form rather than the function of a part. The printer will be used to create these prototypes for TR customers who want to explore new variations on existing parts or components used in their production process. The TR team will use its extensive library of CAD designs along with the printer’s sophisticated software to create variations of different fasteners for customers to view and test.

Keith Gibb, Head of Web Development at TR, comments: “We first invested in 3D printing technology 3 years ago by purchasing the FDM machine, which is simple to use and ideal for our first foray into the process but doesn’t produce the best quality parts.

“The speed and accuracy of the new printer has already allowed us to produce prototypes for a number of customers in both the automotive and electronics sectors. We made plastic prototypes of metal parts which meant one customer could check fit and form of a new part in 3 days rather than laying down expensive tooling and waiting for weeks. We’ve also produced fully working prototypes of injection moulded parts that were with the customer in 24 hours – the actual injection moulded samples would have taken 6 weeks.”

TR Fastenings

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TR Fastenings – The clear alternative

Multi-award winning global manufacturer and distributor of industrial fastenings and associated components. Est. 1973

Company Overview

TR Fastenings is a market leading global manufacturer and logistics distributor of industrial fastenings and high volume category C assembly components.

TR is a ‘full service provider’ giving End-2-End support to our customers, work with them from the early engineering & design stage right through to specification, manufacturing, quality and logistics.

Our worldwide operations span the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, India and the USA.

We have an annual output of 5 billion components to over 5000 customers in sectors including automotive, electronics & telecoms, general industrial, marine, home appliance and distributor sales.

General Information
TR Fastenings manufactures 33% of all components it sells. Our own brand products include Hank® rivet bushes, Hank® self clinch fasteners, screws for plastic, blind rivet nuts, Binx® self-locking nuts and security fasteners.

Our product range includes: general fasteners, sheet metal fasteners, fasteners for plastic, micro-diameter from M0.6, plastic fasteners, security fasteners, stainless steel & brass fasteners, adhesives & sealants and more.

For updates and the latest news on TR Fastenings visit www.trfastenings.com

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