Saris Cycling Group has been manufacturing high quality, durable, affordable bike racks and parking solutions since 1974. Saris Cycling Group’s products range from classic to contemporary to high security.  The company’s design center, in Madison, WI, uses the Dimension Elite 3D Printer from Graphics Systems to create 3D prototypes of their designs and dramatically speed-up their product development cycle. 

In the past Saris had outsourced their prototypes when designing and developing new bike parking solutions and other product lines.  However, Saris found they needed stronger parts, faster.  The Dimension Elite 3D printer was affordable, fast, and used the strong engineer-grade ABS plastic material they needed. 

As global competition and consumer demand increases, new product lines are expected to be launched yearly.  The pressure to consistently launch new product lines makes it imperative get products developed and into stores quickly.  Saris found the Dimension 3D printer enabled them to produce more prototypes in-house and shorten their development cycles.

“Before we were outsourcing and it would take two weeks to get a quote and to manufacture, which means that we also had to get the part right the first time.  Now we can make adjustments as they go which is saving large amounts of money and time in development as well as in production.”

- Mark Dahl, Saris Cycling Group

 The design team at Saris Cycling Group uses the 3D printer for making a lot of trainer parts for evaluating and improving the form, fit and function of its models and to explore different design iterations. The design team now makes considerably more parts than they used to.  Prior to having their Dimension 3D Printer, having a part made was costly.  In the past, Engineers refrained from making too many parts or doing too many iterations of the same design in order to save money.  Engineers can now make subtle or total design changes until they are completely satisfied.  They are able to experiment and have much more freedom with designs

“It is the ability to go back and redesign something in the morning and have a physical representation of the concept in your hand the same day that is the priceless step forward in product design.”

- Mark Dahl, Saris Cycling Group

The Dimension 3D Printer enables designers to print parts directly from their CAD files.  The easy-to-use printing software imports STL files from the CAD software and builds highly durable, functional ABS models.  Dimension 3D Printers can run unattended and provide system and build status updates via e-mail, or online.  Also office-friendly, Dimension 3D Printers are clean, quiet, and low-maintenance.