Case Study: Swift Engineering achieves up to 90% faster sacrificial tooling and slashes production time with Proto3000

Swift Engineering Shaves Months Off Production By Embracing 3d Printing For Sacrificial Tooling Applications

Swift Engineering, a San Clemente-based developer of next-generation composite parts for aerospace, automotive and motorsport applications, faced long, costly lead times producing multi-piece sacrificial tooling for complex hollow parts. To speed production without sacrificing quality, Swift turned to Proto3000 and its additive manufacturing solution—using Fortus 3D Printers, FDM technology and ST-130 material—to produce one-piece, 3D-printed sacrificial tools.

Proto3000’s approach used custom fill patterns and ST-130 tooling that withstands consolidation pressures and can be dissolved after cure, eliminating bonded assemblies and secondary processing. The result: tool lead times dropped by up to 90% (tool builds now often take days or under 24 hours versus weeks or months), improved inner-surface quality with no seams, faster design iterations, and quicker delivery of finished composite parts thanks to Proto3000’s solution.

Swift Engineering

Rick Heise