Case Study: John Crane achieves dramatic cost and time savings replacing machined metal parts with Stratasys Fortus 450mc

John Crane transforms tooling and metal part replacement with additive manufacturing

John Crane, a global leader in rotating equipment based in Slough, UK, faced high costs, long lead times and complex machining challenges for tooling and metal parts—especially components with intricate internal shapes and spin-test fixtures. To address these issues the company’s Advanced Manufacturing team partnered with Stratasys and its local partner to install a Stratasys Fortus 450mc industrial FDM 3D printer and leverage engineering-grade FDM Nylon 12CF material for shop-floor tooling, jigs and low-volume parts.

Using the Stratasys Fortus 450mc and Nylon 12CF, John Crane redesigned and 3D printed solutions that replaced assemblies of metal parts, improved test capability and cut costs and time dramatically: a single 3D-printed impeller casing replaced 22 machined metal components and is about 98% cheaper to make, enabling in-house spin testing that reduces test costs by 65% and cuts lead time by three weeks; 3D-printed jaw inserts reduce CNC setup time by up to 80%. Stratasys’ technology also delivered lighter, safer training replicas and rapid iteration on designs, freeing CNC capacity and accelerating R&D.

John Crane

Liam Johnston

Program Manager, Advanced Manufacturing