Fender Musical Instruments leverages Objet’s Eden350V to speed product development, improve quality of designs

Company Description: Fender Musical Instruments Corporation designs and manufactures stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. The company makes acoustic guitars, electric basses, mandolins, banjos, and violins, as well as guitar amplifiers, bass amplifiers, and PA (public address) equipment. Avril Lavigne, Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend and Sting are among the artists known for using Fender equipment.

Challenges:

• Frustrated by the time and expense of outsourcing.
• The nature of our work requires very tight detail. Ease of use was #2, and cost was #3. We also needed to make sure the system could handle a variety of part sizes and materials, because our parts range from the size of a dime up to a full guitar body.
• Fender’s volume had grown to a point where Greene, Senior Industrial Designer,  recommended that they bring rapid prototyping technology in house

Solution:

•  Objet’s Eden350V 3D Printing System

Results: 

• Accelerated time-to-market for new products and product enhancements
• Lower risk for new product introduction
• Better, more creative product designs
• Prototyping costs cut in half even though Fender now does much more rapid prototyping than it did in the past.

Read the full 3D printing case study.