There is a lot to unpack in this HP5200 MJF build! Here we have a Q&A session with Cobra AERO President, Sean Hilbert where he discusses questions he is often asked (and some they ask themselves).
Q: You guys have a powersports business (Cobra MOTO) and an aerospace business (Cobra AERO). Is there anything strategic about running those two seemingly disparate businesses at the same time?
A: The simple answer is that there are many strategic ties with the propulsion sides of each business. Be it internal combustion engines, battery electric, or a hybridized combination of the two, both businesses require world-class <20kW propulsion.
Part of the build (pictured here) are production cooling cowls and an inlet manifold for Cobra AEROs A33N UAS engine.
Q: Cobra is a small business. Does it make sense to invest in additive technology like your Renishaw AM400 or the new HP52000 MJF machine?
A: Hell yes. From a prototyping perspective, we can now iterate at the speed of a single build. Prototype castings, prototype injection molds, etc., can now be churned and burned at speeds unthought of before…even if we were using a service bureau. Days, weeks, months can now be removed from the process, and because we can turn more physical iterations, end products improve. We also currently produce MANY production parts for the aerospace side of our business, and soon we’ll be doing short-run stuff for MOTO as well. These machines are always busy, and visible in this print is a prototype seat pan for an upcoming model motorcycle, a prototype front number plate, and prototype fork guards. Prototypes and production parts all intermixed in the same build. Awesome!
Q: Aren’t these parts too expensive to put into series production (especially on the MOTO side where margins are smaller)?
A: The short answer is YES and NO. On the AERO side of the business where we aren’t as sensitive to individual part cost, production parts are a no-brainer…On the MOTO side, we will be additively manufacturing production parts early in a product’s life cycle, and in some cases migrating to lower cost processes like injection molding where appropriate.
One thing that we must take into consideration is that we’re a small volume manufacturer. That means tooling like injection molds must be amortized over a relatively small volume of parts anyway, and that drives up the REAL cost of each part (as do things like inbound shipping, part storage, mold changes, supply chain risk, etc.). Furthermore, investment in an injection mold only makes one part…investment in an HP MJF machine can make an infinite variety of parts.
The bottom line for MOTO is that by not having to invest (up front) in hundreds of thousands of dollars in molds, we can get products to market quicker and with lower risk by not having to wait for a large number of production molds to be built and qualified. Quicker launches trump lower parts cost almost every time.
Q: Does this only make sense for a small volume manufacturer if you also open capacity as a ‘job shop’?
A: Selling open capacity can help pay the bills, however, we only do that if the work is strategic in nature. We’re printing some very cool Titanium stuff on a project we’re doing with an aerospace partner (more on that later), and we’ve done other work for customers that we’re co-developing hardware for. It never hurts to keep expensive machinery busy, however, we’re not advertising or selling our capacity as a commodity service…we’re only using it where strategically applicable with partner companies.
A few final thoughts:
The other important aspect of our decision to go head-long into AM is the design freedom the technology opens for us. See examples in these videos: click here and here. We’re doing so many exciting things, and we’ll share those here soon. In the meantime, if you are on the fence regarding whether to invest in AM technology, I will just say that the ROI calculation we initially did to justify our initial purchase ended up being very low. Results may vary, but with full leverage and a bit of creativity, you won’t be disappointed.