Generative Designed Pliers

“I had read about how car maker Bugatti reimagined its titanium brake caliper with generative design and 3D printing to reduce the weight and boost the performance,” says Yankello, who has a passion for auto racing. “I wondered if we could do the same with pliers.”

With the goal of completely reinventing the pliers, Yankello reached out to an engineer with extensive generative design experience, which is a process of using artificial intelligence to explore all possible design options for a part focusing on its function.

Generative design requires specific software and a huge amount of computing power to calculate optimized designs. It also includes simulation to impose stresses and mimic movements to further refine the design while learning from each iteration.

In just a matter of hours, Yankello had more than 300 digital options to choose from. He knew he was on to something.

The software calculated that the design options for grade 5 titanium could produce pliers that were 60% lighter than any other competing fishing pliers on the market while delivering up to 500 pounds of crimping force. The average grip strength is about 200 pounds, so these pliers would be considerably overbuilt to perform under any conditions.

Dozens of designs were rejected as not being practical or visually appealing, but several showed great promise. Digital versions, however, only told half the story. Yankello needed to hold the new creations in his hand.

“The look of the plier was fantastic, but I had to see them physically and experience how they worked to know if this was going to be both revolutionary and still practical for their purpose,” he says.

From Idea to Final Product in Three Months

Custom made metal prototypes are costly and take time. Danco’s manufacturing facility in China typically sends 3D printed design prototypes with regular shipments of product, but Yankello couldn’t wait months. He turned to the 3D printing service marketplace Craftcloud.

“I didn’t have the time to figure out which 3D printing service had the right materials and was able to print what I needed fast,” says Yankello. “Craftcloud’s response was instant. As soon as I uploaded my designs, I saw a range of American manufacturers, their price, and how soon they could get the prototype in my hands.”

Yankello chose a Craftcloud partner able to print the pliers in a high-detail tough resin and deliver them in only a few days for less than $100 each.

“The SLA resin prototypes were exactly what I was looking for,” he says. “They showed all the detail we needed to evaluate and they felt great. Due to the tight tolerances from the resin model, we were able to evaluate and approve the functionality and hinge just from the 3D printed sample.”

After selecting a final design, Danco partnered with Don Schumacher Manufacturing (DSM) in Indiana, which typically builds 11,000 hp drag racing motors. DSM had the precision, expertise, and technology – a five-axis CNC milling machine – to produce the titanium pliers from the same digital design file generated by the generative design software.

“With the help of generative design and 3D printing with Craftcloud, we were able to go from idea to final product in less than three months,” says Yankello.

Debuting at the ICAST trade expo in July to thousands of industry professionals, the pliers, called Premio AI, were the talk of the show.

“People were blown away by the Premio AI plier because they didn’t just look different, they are a true innovation that pushes the industry forward,” says Yankello.”By surpassing decades of traditional innovation, we can develop and bring products to life in a dramatically shorter timeframe.”

Yankello isn’t done innovating or using 3D printing to bring exciting new Danco Sports products to market quickly. “Private label is a big part of what we do so these technologies, along with reliable service from Craftcloud, really open the door to great opportunities for Danco.”

Share Your Craftcloud Story

Danco Sports was selected to be featured here as part of the Craftcloud Stories campaign to highlight innovations made possible through 3D printing at Craftcloud, the 3D printing service marketplace provided by All3DP. If you’d like to share your company’s story, stay tuned to Craftcloud for the next campaign by signing up for the Craftcloud newsletter.