Case Study: Brunswick Corporation achieves 15-day production turnarounds and lower tooling costs with Protolabs

Luxury boat builder goes to production in 15 days with aluminum tooling from Protolabs

Brunswick Corporation’s Sea Ray brand needed a corrosion‑resistant grill for a redesigned air‑conditioning drainage point on its L650 Fly yachts. Low production volumes made urethane casting expensive and unsustainable (disposable molds were replaced every 2–3 weeks, yielding only about 10–11 parts), and traditional steel injection molding was too slow and costly. Brunswick turned to Protolabs’ rapid thermoplastic injection molding and industrial‑grade 3D printing services to address the supply challenge.

Protolabs delivered aluminum‑alloy molds for ABS injection‑molded grills and produced 3D‑printed iterations and interim production parts, with prototypes shipping in about four days and molded parts in roughly three weeks. The result was stronger, more consistent parts with better surface finish and less finishing work, elimination of frequent disposable‑tooling waste, faster prototype‑to‑production transition, and expansion of Protolabs’ injection molding to other Sea Ray components (such as switch covers), reducing labor and accelerating time to market.

Brunswick Corporation

Randy Hasson

Project Leader