Case Study: Polaris achieves faster, lower-cost tooling and improved part protection with Stratasys 3D printing

Polaris - Customer Case Study

Polaris, maker of snowmobiles, off-road vehicles and motorcycles (including Indian Motorcycles), faced high tooling costs, strict cosmetic standards and the need for flexible, production-quality fixtures and rapid prototyping. To tackle these challenges they partnered with Stratasys, leveraging Stratasys 3D printing technology—particularly FDM systems and FDM TPU 92A elastomer material—to produce soft yet durable tooling and fixtures that protect painted surfaces and meet cosmetic requirements.

Stratasys’ solution let Polaris iterate quickly and cut costs: lead times for testable designs dropped from eight–12 weeks to as little as 24 hours, elastomer locating fixtures prevented paint damage (e.g., rear fender tip locator), VIN-label guards replaced time-consuming leather and vacuum-formed parts, and flexible parts like cupholders and intake ducts were refined faster. The result was significantly reduced tooling time and cost, freed engineering capacity, faster validation cycles and greater confidence in production parts—all enabled by Stratasys.

Polaris

Cory Bombard

Program Manager for Additive Technology