“The quality of the Form 4L is next level — it’s incredible.”
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
For 25 years, H2scan has made hydrogen sensors for any company working in the hydrogen space. Sensors are designed, manufactured, and calibrated in-house, ensuring that the final sensor is a safe and robust product. This year, they’re launching the Hy-Guard, a product with an all-plastic enclosure that’s 3D printed on Formlabs Form 4L large format 3D printer in custom Color Resin that matches the visual brand language. By directly printing in color, H2scan saved costs and got the product to market faster than using injection molding for manufacturing.
“We've sent samples to different trade shows. The overwhelming response is, wow, this is 3D printed? How is this texture something you can do on a 3D printer? We've asked if there are any changes they want to see, and they can't find any flaws with it. They are just amazed that we're able to achieve the features we're able to on a product that was exclusively 3D printed.”
Christian Thompson, Mechanical Engineering Manager
Since Form 2, Formlabs resin 3D printers have been a key part of product development at H2scan. Now, Form 4L has propelled prototyping and production, empowering the engineers to rapidly prototype, produce rapid tooling, and manufacture end-use parts for production builds.
Christian Thompson, Mechanical Engineering Manager, designs the metal components, enclosures, and mechanical assemblies for H2scan sensors, using 3D printing to prototype and develop the components that house the electronics themselves. Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, works on improving the efficiency of how the sensors are calibrated and assembled.
H2scan uses 10 printers from a number of manufacturers, including fused deposition modeling (FDM) for, as Thompson says, “quick and dirty concepts,” as well as low-cost resin 3D printers. H2scan started using Formlabs printers in 2020 with Form 2, but Form 4L has revolutionized their timelines.
“Why Formlabs? The ease of use. It's very user friendly. You don't have to be an engineer to know how to run the printer — it's incredible and very repeatable. We can train our technicians how to print parts and really utilize the tool to the best of our abilities. That's what keeps bringing us back.”
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
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Form 4L: “Light Years Different”
“Form 4L is light years different from Form 3. We're cranking things out. The speed of the 4L, it blows my mind. People rush to use the Form 4L because they can get a part in two hours versus six. People love the machine. If the Form 3 can do one or two prints, the Form 4L can do 10.”
Christian Thompson, Mechanical Engineering Manager, H2scan
Form 4 Series 3D printers print 2-5x faster than Form 3 Series 3D printers, for multiple iterations a day, or same-day delivery of large parts. The Form 3+ has a 5.7 x 5.7 in build platform and a build volume of 4.05 L while Form 4L has a build platform of 13.9 x 7.7 in and a build volume of 24.2 L (even larger than Form 3L). Due to the masked stereolithography (MSLA) technology of Form 4 Series 3D printers, an entire layer is exposed at once, so whether one part is being printed or many, the print time is the same, for increased throughput. In addition to speed and throughput, Form 4L delivers highly accurate parts with fine details.
“We're printing parts that have 3D printed threads on them. We chase them with a tap for fun — they come out almost perfect. We're able to use them basically right off the printer.”
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
In addition to threads, some parts are selectively textured. Thompson says that other resin printers are not able to replicate the fine textures on both flat and curved surfaces, but Form 4L delivers. Monnie adds that the texturing provides both grip and a premium feel which, he says, “we'd struggle to get that out of an injection molded part.”
Enclosure prototypes with and without texture, printed in custom Color Resin.
Parts in-Hand in Three Hours
“Being able to iterate within three hours is so valuable. We're not waiting weeks for new parts to come in, waiting on machine shops. The time factor associated with parts printed on the Form 4L significantly accelerates our new product development.”
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
Printer speed is what enables truly rapid prototyping. While previous 3D printers brought prototyping in-house, decreasing iterations from weeks to days, Form 4L brings this down to hours.
Without in-house 3D printing, Thompson would be spending time placing orders for parts or with a quick turn injection molding house. And, he says, “Every one of those orders needs justification and slows down the work because five people have to approve it.” With Form 4L he can go from the screen straight to print.
“We can get it in the hands of the stakeholders. Instead of a few weeks, we can do this in hours and say, 'here’s the next version of this.' Seeing something on a screen is so different versus being able to touch and feel it. So, we have weekly meetings where there's six different iterations of a product and we can lay out all the prototypes. At the heart of it is the Form 4L.”
Christian Thompson, Mechanical Engineering Manager, H2scan
For both Monnie and Thompson, having parts in-hand in hours is powerful. Being able to show stakeholders and customers what looks like a finished product before it’s finished ensures they know exactly what they’re getting and how it will integrate in their space. This eliminates any surprises for the customer. Monnie says that many, upon seeing the product, don’t even believe it’s 3D printed, because the quality is that of an injection-molded part. “It enables us to really give a good customer experience.”
3D Printed Tooling for Low-Pressure Molding
One of the tools Monnie utilizes is a low-pressure molding machine. He says, “We have mild steel tooling for it but we've explored using the Rigid 10K Resin printed on the Form 4L to make some lower volume tooling for that and it's been successful.”
Tooling printed in Rigid 10K Resin on Form 4L speeds up timelines.
Rigid 10K Resin is a highly glass-filled, heat-resistant material for parts requiring dimensional accuracy and stability under high temperatures and pressures. Paired with the larger Build Platform L, Thompson says, “The larger platform size lets us introduce and design tooling that is more efficient. You can get a lot more parts per print versus a one-off.”
“Form 4L and Rigid 10K Resin really change how we think about iterative design. We don't need to go buy prototype tooling. We can do all the prototyping in-house before we make that jump if we need to get to volume. It's really sped things up for us.”
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
Before Rigid 10K Resin, Thompson used High Temp Resin, but “we found that the high temp material is really brittle. So the tools would not last long. We had a printer so we could make more. But introducing the Rigid 10K Resin, it's giving us tools that are a lot more useful and robust and have more than five times the life cycle.”
Having a robust material that doesn’t chip and that prints with a fine finish is important. It minimizes post-processing for parts, saving time and labor, and maximizes use, bringing down the cost per part. Additionally, being able to print tooling in-house substantially reduces timelines by as much as weeks.
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End-Use Parts: A 3D Printed Plastic Enclosure
Enclosures for Hy-Guard are directly printed on Form 4L.
This year, H2scan is launching Hy-Guard, a product that uses their core hydrogen sensing technology in an all new form factor to offer better safety for battery monitoring applications. The majority of parts on the new, larger enclosure are printed on Form 4L. Thompson says, “it’s special because we're using multiple Formlabs resins to give it a nice, finished look.”
In an effort to create a more efficient manufacturing process for this new product, Monnie began printing manifolds with Tough 2000 Resin, which has a similar strength and stiffness to ABS plastics. “I can print a custom enclosure with a face seal and perform our calibration process and iterate the form factor to find the best result.” For Monnie, the tight tolerances of 3D printed parts off Form 4L means he can print and get right to testing. And, if changes are needed, it’s a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.
“For Hy-Guard alone we are printing eight different parts. If we went with injection molding, that is a minimum 5x investment for tooling — and that still includes ongoing costs for parts with the longer lead time.”
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
H2scan has invested in two Form 4Ls plus a Wash L and Cure L, spending what they would typically spend on one injection molding tool. Form 4L means they get speed, flexibility, and cost-savings.
“I don't have to go to a machine shop and iterate three times with this before I'd be able to even start testing eight weeks later. It's really redefined how we think about our new product development in general and how we improve our manufacturing."
Bennet Monnie, Senior Process Engineer, H2scan
Initially, the enclosure of the Hy-Guard was going to be printed in Tough 2000 Resin which would be painted and sealed. Thompson says, “We found that even with the extra steps of painting and sealing, it was cheaper for us to print in Tough 2000 than to go to injection molding. Injection molding is just too expensive and cost-prohibitive for us to enter the market with this new product.”
All the 3D printed parts in the Hy-Guard, including one in Color Resin at the top.
The Pantone brand sample used to determine what HEX code should be input when ordering custom Color Resin, and the enclosure printed in the custom Color Resin.
Around this time, Formlabs Color Resin was released. Formlabs used the Pantone swatch to generate a few color options showing the closest matches that could be achieved. “We picked the one we liked, they sent the exact resin that fits that, and we've since ordered dozens of liters of this material for our initial runs,” says Thompson. With Color Resin, “All we have to do is break away supports, some simple post-processing, sanding, and cleanup.”
The response to the Hy-Guard from stakeholders and customers has been surprise and amazement that the enclosure was 3D printed. “Handing them something that they can hold, they can touch and feel, the value has been tremendous. It has given a lot of hype to the Hy-Guard product,” says Thompson.
Showroom Ready With Clear Resin
Using Clear Resin for trade shows and samples enables customers to see what’s inside H2scan products.
“You don't see the guts of the actual sensing elements of our product. So, we've gone through and made a series of clear versions of our product so we can show off what we're really selling, which is inside of the part. The Clear Resin has been really effective lately in helping sell our sensors.”
Christian Thompson, Mechanical Engineering Manager, H2scan
Clear Resin is an exceptionally clear and color-neutral material. The high optical clarity and smooth surface when printed on Form 4 Series 3D printers mean it rivals the surface finish of acrylic, making it optimal for parts like enclosures where visibility is key.
Shortening Timelines and Increasing Material Versatility
From end-use enclosures to tooling, 3D printing on Form 4L has decreased timelines for Thompson and Monnie, enabling the delivery of looks-like prototypes, showroom samples, manifolds, and end-use enclosures.
Thompson and Monnie used the easy material changeovers on Form 4L as an opportunity to try new materials, leveraging the larger build volume to print tooling in Rigid 10K Resin, and trying out Color Resin, a custom-colorable general purpose resin. With a library of materials, Thompson and Monnie select the optimal material for their application, whether that be end-use parts, tooling, or rapid prototypes.
