Case Study: ATOMIC achieves rapid, low‑cost connector prototyping and faster time‑to‑market with Proto3000

ATOMIC Designs Concert Sets for Top Bands With 3D Printing

ATOMIC, a Lititz-based scenic design and fabrication firm for concert tours, faced long, costly prototype cycles for the complex three-dimensional aluminum and polycarbonate connectors that join its modular set panels. To speed iterations and reduce reliance on outsourced extrusion dies, ATOMIC turned to Proto3000 and its FDM uPrint 3D printer to evaluate 3D-printed ABSplus parts for prototyping and low-volume production.

Proto3000’s FDM uPrint solution produced rugged parts that could be used for testing and sometimes in final assemblies, cutting simple corner prototype time to about four hours (roughly half the previous manual time) and reducing complex connector prototyping from four weeks to one day (about an 80% time cut). Larger extrusions that once cost $2,000 and took four weeks to prototype can be printed in a day for about $200, delivering savings up to 27 days (96%) and $1,800 (90%) per part, while freeing designers from manual fabrication and accelerating time-to-market.

ATOMIC

Charlie Cook

Designer