Case Study: Aptiv qualifies seaworthy parts with Carbon

Aptiv Qualifies Carbon for Stringent Seaworthy Parts

Aptiv, a global technology company serving mobility and ocean-travel applications, needed a better way to produce seaworthy fiber optic dust caps that could withstand salt water, dust, impact, fungus, and strict military and industry qualification requirements. The existing metal parts were heavy, expensive, and difficult to manufacture, while prior injection molding attempts could not handle the threaded and undercut geometry needed for the application.

Carbon used its Digital Light Synthesis™ technology and Flexible Polyurethane (FPU 50) material to produce the dust cap as a single printed part, eliminating multiple metalworking steps and post-processing. The result was a lighter, lower-cost, and easier-to-produce component that passed six stringent qualification tests, including impact, sand and dust, torque, salt spray, and fungus resistance, while maintaining repeatable thread accuracy and legible ID markings.

Aptiv

Scott Cohen

Engineering Manager