J.W. Speaker has grown from a small lighting shop purchased in Ohio in the 1970s into one of the most respected brands in specialized LED vehicle lighting, Serving a broad range of industries, the manufacturer proudly designs, makes and assembles all of their products in Germantown, Wisconsin.
Known for its innovation in LED and emerging lighting technologies, the company serves OEMs and aftermarket customers worldwide.
Several years ago, company leaders at J.W. Speaker turned to additive manufacturing for its speed, flexibility and savings that traditional manufacturing methods couldn’t match. The company now maintains an array of Stratasys 3D printers to produce end-use production parts such as custom bezels, prototypes, and tooling such as leak-check fixtures.
They started with their first Stratasys FDM® (fused deposition modeling) 3D printer, and later added another FDM printer. More recently, in 2023, JW Speaker turned to Stratasys again for an Origin One printer, using P3™ (programmable photopolymerization) technology.
By more fully embracing 3D printing to incorporate production parts, rather than limiting its use to only prototyping and tooling, JW Speaker has benefited tremendously in terms of speed and cost savings. “The additive technologies we have really allow us to be more in control of our own efficiencies and timelines,” said Brent Joecks, Engineering Technician at JW Speaker.
In addition, the company has experienced first-hand how additive manufacturing grants new freedoms by overcoming traditional manufacturing constraints. For example, 3D printing has opened the door to new designs with geometries previously impossible to manufacture.
The company’s use of GrabCAD® Print Pro print preparation and management software with its Stratasys industrial 3D printers has further accelerated its development and production capabilities. This means that technicians can more quickly and reliably print components that were previously unmanufacturable through traditional methods.
J.W. Speaker leverages the advanced tools of GrabCAD Print Pro for part orientation, support generation, and material-specific settings fine-tuned for its FDM printers. Technicians also appreciate the solution’s many user friendly features to do things such as add text (brand names, serial numbers, etc.) directly on the object prior to printing.
For more on how J.W. Speaker uses Stratasys FDM technology, view our video case study.
As J.W. Speaker continues to innovate world-class LED lighting products, additive manufacturing and GrabCAD Print Pro will enable further transformation in terms of designs, customization and speed-to-market. With new enhancements to the solution coming online every month, there’s no stopping the innovation ahead.
Here’s a look at just a few of its capabilities used by the company.
One-Stop Prep & Print: GrabCAD Print Pro enables seamlessly taking a CAD design to print-ready with minimized steps. The intuitiveness and automation frees up their team to focus on design iterations rather than getting lost in pre-print software complexities.
Text Labeling: Easily add text directly onto parts to assist with identification and version control without having to modify the original CAD model. This supports rapid prototyping to iteratively test prototypes.
Automatic Support Generation: The software automatically generate custom supports without having to manually add them. This ensures proper overhangs and bridging while saving engineering hours.
J.W. Speaker looks forward to continuing to push the boundaries of lighting design and customization with additive manufacturing.
