Case Study: IDEC slashes tooling lead time, costs, and composite heating time with Stratasys F900 FDM solution

IDEC and Wehl & Partner Reinvent Composite Molding With FDM Additive Manufacturing

IDEC, a leading Spanish provider of composite solutions for the aerospace industry, faced a challenge in producing a curved aircraft wing preform using resin transfer molding (RTM): the process required directly heating composite fabrics to 150–180 °C, which ruled out conductive metals and standard epoxies (unstable above 140 °C). To overcome these limitations IDEC worked with additive manufacturing technology from Stratasys, leveraging FDM® and high‑performance ULTEM™ 1010 resin to meet the project’s thermal and mechanical requirements.

Using a Stratasys F900 Production System to print a large-scale preform tool, the team produced the tool in 60 hours (versus an estimated four weeks by CNC), cut the composite heating stage from one hour to ten minutes, and achieved a reusable tool life of at least 25 cycles. The Stratasys solution also delivered up to 67% cost savings compared with CNC aluminum machining, sped the overall RTM process and met aerospace technical demands for strength and non‑conductivity.

IDEC

Diego Calderón

Structural Analysis Manager