Carbon
Carbon vitamix
The Vitamix micro-fluidic cleansing nozzle now manufactured in a single part, rather than six.
WINNER of the TCT Consumer Product Award 2018. Submit your design-to-manufacturing innovation for this year’s TCT Awards here.
Carbon’s 3D printing technology has been harnessed by Vitamix, a blending equipment manufacturer, to redesign a micro-fluidic nozzle which rinses and cleans blender containers.
Vitamix partnered with Carbon and one of its production partners, The Technology House (TTH) to reimagine how the part could be designed and manufactured. The result is a nozzle able to be mass-produced that is ten times more durable, uses 30% less material, and is around 33% more economical.
Traditionally, the nozzle is comprised of six different injection moulded pieces, which were each made with durable materials able to withstand high pressures and temperatures, and endure exposure to strong cleaning agents, like bleach for example. It was a critical component used to clean and rinse blender containers in commercial shops across the United States.
With the adoption of Carbon’s Continuous Liquid Interface Production, Vitamix has been able to reduce six separate parts to a single, monolithic part. It is manufactured in 3D printing company’s Rigid Polyurethane (RPU) material, and enabled by the SpeedCella system which comprises the M2 printer and Smart Part Washer system. Due to the high-pressure fluidics performance requirement of the nozzle, complex geometry and channels with excellent surface finish was paramount, but upon receiving the final part, Vitamix says the nozzle is of superior quality than ever before. It is now deploying tens of thousands of the new nozzle design into stores all over the country.
“If you’re going to believe in something that isn’t yet possible, then you have to rethink possible. It’s the only way to get there,” said Jodi Berg, President and CEO, Vitamix. “Our partnership with Carbon is very exciting for us, because it’s helping us rethink the possible every day. Once you realise you can manufacture something differently, then you can think about how those components interact with other components, and how you can achieve an entirely different outcome. It’s about evolving the paradigm of engineering, and now we have a new tool in our toolbox that we’re learning, exploring and evolving.”
For Carbon, it's another successful implementation of its technology in another vertical market. Already this year the company's partnership with adidas has been built upon and mobile phone case manufacturer, Incase, is bringing Carbon's 3D printing technology into its production processes too. This latest collaboration with Vitamix was announced via Carbon's Twitter account, which also emphasises the company's ambition to shift the utilisation of 3D printing technology from prototyping to manufacturing. An ambition being realised with Vitamix.
“There is a liberating freedom when designing products on the means of production, and our work with Vitamix is a perfect example of the kind of innovation you can achieve when you fuse design, manufacturability and engineering all into one,” added Joseph DeSimone, CEO and Co-Founder at Carbon. “Once you go digital, you can’t go back – it fundamentally changes how designers and engineers think, how people collaborate and work, without constraints. That’s true of 3D manufacturing, and it’s revolutionary because it allows for powerful, imaginative thinking to solve complex problems and create new opportunities.”
