Tiberius Arms is a small company specializing in the design and manufacturing of advanced pneumatic weapons. You may have used similar weapons on the paintball grounds, but they’re also used by the military for training and police forces as a “less than lethal” weapon. Tiberius has been producing weapons since their first product, a sniper rifle, was released in 2005. But Tiberius had a problem with their workflow: being a small company, they had to outsource various functions. Their design process had designs created in Utah, metal prototypes were prepared in Indiana. This meant significant delays as items were shipped between these locations during the development stage. As all imaginative people know, the least possible cycle time is most desirable to maintain a creative flow. Not only was the process terribly slow, it had other issues, according to Dennis Tiberius:
On top of time wasted, numerous mistakes resulted because there was no way to efficiently and cost-effectively develop multiple prototypes for the testing of the models. Unseen design errors occurred, which became a serious product development issue. Models did not always match our drawings and development time was extended significantly.
To speed things up Tiberius decided to acquire their own Dimension uPrint 3D printer. This device is a true commercial 3D printer, but is one of the least expensive. The new printer permitted very rapid turnaround between idea and prototypes you hold in your hand. These physical models enabled a very quick verification of fit, meaning committing to the expensive metal model became a much more confident affair.
Via Tiberius Arms (Hat tip to Jessica)
