How does Pollen AM technology foster innovation at Decathlon?
Decathlon, a French company, is always looking for new innovations in the fields of leisure and sports. Who hasn’t heard of its 2nd tent, diving masks, or windsurfing kit. With more than 65 patents filed in 2019, the company has built a solid team of engineers, designers, and other professionals. Added to this is the “AddLab,” its laboratory dedicated to additive manufacturing, which allows both prototypes and finished parts to be imagined more quickly thanks to a complete machine park, with solutions ranging from FDM to Multi Jet Fusion. Among Decathlon’s 3D printers is Pollen AM’s technology, in which the group has invested since the opening of the AddLab more than six years ago. Today, it has two PAM Series P machines that allow it to produce “right material” prototypes, i.e. Functional prototypes are made from the same material as the final product and allow users to verify its functionality and characteristics. Decathlon’s designers and engineers rely on Pollen AM’s technology and the range of materials offered to quickly validate innovations, no matter their complexity.
Since its inception, additive manufacturing has been used to quickly prototype products. A 3D printer allows companies to quickly create a product visualization and make the necessary adjustments. Although the technology allows for this preview it does not allow for material characterization. How can you test the mechanical characteristics of a part in the future? Its chemical properties? How can users be certain that 3D-printed prototypes will produce the same results as cast parts? Because pellet 3D printing uses fewer transformations than filaments, the material has characteristics that are more similar to injection molding. This is why Decathlon chose PollenAM technology. The goal was to print prototypes using the material used in large-scale manufacturing to get properties that were as close to the final part as possible.
A prototype 3D printed ski pole basket (photo credit: Decathlon).
Right Material Prototyping Using Pollen AM technology
Jimmy Gantier, Right Material Prototyping manager at Decathlon’s AddLab, is responsible for the creation of prototypes. He is responsible for the printing on the Pollen AM machines. He explained the following: “My job is to manage the material and the way of printing. I am a designer or engineer who comes to me to discuss the material. He will also provide me with a 3D file of the material that will be used for large-scale productions. I will then characterize the material and print it on the Pollen. This allows me design prototypes that can be used in use tests or in the laboratory to directly examine the behavior of the part. For certain product categories, we will then be able to modify the product more quickly, without going through molding steps that are time-consuming, expensive and represent a certain energy cost.” Today, PAM Series P printers 3D print many prototypes using TPE or TPU. These are especially useful for watersports like diving masks or soles. Although the number of prototypes produced varies depending on their size, one thing is certain: it is controlled.
Thomas is a product engineer at SUBEA, Decathlon’s underwater sports brand. He explains the interest of using Pollen AM’s technology for this application: “Today, one of the biggest difficulties in the design of a mask is to ensure the waterproofness of the product on the greatest number of different faces. We make a 3D model of the product, often inspired from existing face contacts. Then, we have to test it as best as we can before we open the industrial mold (10 week / many tens of thousand of euros). In recent years, we used a prototype mould (8 weeks / close to 10K euros) for our first iterations. After that, we opened an industry mold that we systematically reworked. Digital simulation has allowed us greatly to reduce the number of iterations for prototype molds but we are not yet able to do without them. With the help of Pollen AM, we can convert the digital model into an industrial mold by using the right material prototyping. We could save up to 3 months and 20,000€, not to mention the CO2 impact of a mold made in Asia and dozens of parts sent by plane.” For now, Decathlon has used this process for a first concept and was able to validate the prototype’s waterproofness. The teams will confirm the correlation between the printed model, and the prototype mold-injected model.
Different diving mask designs have been 3D printed (photo credit: Decathlon).
The Pollen AM 3D printers have the advantage of being able to use a wide range of elastomers that have a low Shore hardness, which allows for greater flexibility. Decathlon can design prototypes with different Shore A, SHORE A, and/or SHORE B hardnesses. This allows it to expand its soft material range to the maximum extent. The group also worked hard on the hooking plates, printing supports, and other details of each of the elastomers. Jimmy has characterized every material to ensure that they are paired with the best possible soluble supports. This allows for more complex designs, but also saves time. The support dissolves in water and the post-processing doesn’t require any human labor. There is no immobilization of human time.
Jimmy continues: “Another important advantage of the Pollen AM machines is the multi-extrusion. We can print up 4 materials, which is quite interesting. For example, I can design ski poles with a hard shell and a rim made of a flexible elastic elastomer. Also, I can attach supports to the rim. In just a few hours, I can create a prototype with multiple materials and very complex geometry.” The two Pollen AM machines also allow for the production of parts that can be used to simulate overmolding. They are also used for replacing materials.
Decathlon’s teams are sensitive about the impact of their product on the environment. They can quickly envision and test prototypes with more durable materials thanks to additive manufacturing.
These prototypes were tested (photo credit: Decathlon).
A manufacturer who listens to your needs
If Decathlon is today able to make the most of Pollen AM’s technology, it is also thanks to a collaboration that works. The French group regularly reports on the manufacturer’s progress and provides feedback. This allows Decathlon to make improvements and find new solutions. Jimmy explains. “Pollen AM offers me its innovations and I give them my problems and ideas. We work together to find the best solution for each type of material. It is constructive and there is a real partnership that has been established. This is an essential part of my work. I can count on their customer service which is reactive – this is very important when you work non-stop with 3D printers, especially FDM. Our 3D printers are excellent in terms maintenance, materials and speed. They can handle all elastomers and print multiple materials at once, which is a huge advantage when you’re doing right material prototyping.”
The Pollen AM team also adds: “Even if the FDM process is particularly democratized in the industry, many companies use closed systems that do not offer operators the possibility to increase their competence on the method aspect of the FDM process. For the past 10 years, we have been supplying open systems and it seems obvious to us that our support function is the pillar of our users’ success, but also of our own. Our link with Decathlon, and our customers in general, allows us to stay close to their daily life in order to bring our method (system) expertise through specific training modules or to answer a need through a targeted development.”
Decathlon photo credit
Decathlon’s future projects
Jimmy assured us that the future development of the Pollen AM group will focus mainly on the materials. He will begin a work on biodegradable and bio-designed 100% materials. It is also a matter of testing granules made from vegetable waste. Their behavior will be studied to determine if it can be linked to a Decathlon product. Click HERE to learn more.
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