Case Study: Märklin achieves up to 90% time and cost savings in production tooling with Stratasys 3D printing

Märklin Transforms its Production Line with 3D Printed Tools

Märklin, the maker of lifelike model trains, struggled with time- and cost-intensive production of custom assembly tools across its multi-stage manufacturing process—traditional CNC milling was laborious, slow, and generated waste. To solve this, Märklin partnered with Stratasys and adopted Stratasys FDM and PolyJet 3D printing technologies to produce jigs, fixtures and clamps with greater design freedom and faster turnaround.

Using Stratasys 3D printing, Märklin can produce customized tools in a day instead of several weeks, partly replace CNC-milled steel clamps, and combine soft and hard materials in single prints; the company cites time and cost savings of up to 90%. Stratasys’ solution accelerated part delivery, improved workflow and reduced damage to delicate parts, freeing employees to focus on production and innovation and delivering measurable efficiency gains.

Märklin

Michael Zauner

Project Supervisor and Innovations Management