When I first came upon the Tyr3D website it was not very confidence inspiring. And I was not exactly a fan of Tyr3D logo either. Yet, I had been assured that they were at the forefront of 3D printing spare car parts. Where everywhere else people just talked about 3D printing replacement car parts, Tyr3D were actually doing it as a business. In terms of using high-temperature materials such as PEEK and PEI this was a team that had built their own high-temperature 3D printers and were using them to print customer facing parts. They were using Ultimaker, Formlabs and Raise3D machines to recreate spare parts from classic cars. People I trusted told me that this small company in the middle of nowhere in Ireland was making the highest-quality 3D printed spare parts on offer.
With some skepticism I called Mark of Tyr3D to find out more about their business.
He said that indeed they were in Moodooge, Ballintrillick, County Sligo in Ireland. To the southeast about three hours is Dublin, to the west is the Atlantic and the United States. Below is a video detailing Tyr3D’s surroundings and the above image shows you the neighborhood. Ballintrillick, also called Ballaghnatrillick, is a village with a population of 20. No that’s not a typo. Local attractions include: three stones. Ten minutes away by car we can find the Atlantic at Mullaghmore, a relative metropolis of 136 people. The 20,000 inhabitants of Sligo are a half hour away. This is one of the lowest population density parts of Europe, with busses that are miles away and come once a day. Though with nature and sights aplenty, this is not a part of the world known for…anything.
And yet here is a small 3D printing business that makes car parts. Tyr3D 3D scans old car parts, 3D prints them, finishes them, paints them and then ships them to customers the world over. Local business is not a focus, says the friendly and precise Mark, who says “are you with me” a lot. Mark McGowan, who is extremely knowledgeable about finishing techniques, high-temperature 3D printing and high-performance polymers, started the business a year and a half ago together with Brendan O’Reilly.
They have 3 Ultimaker 2 printers. They also have two own build FDM 3D printers, a Raise3D printer and two Formlabs stereolithography printers. Mark also built his own stereolithography machine and a heavily modified Ultimaker 2 which can print at 480°C. Sometimes they use one of their Formlabs systems to cast parts or print on the Formlabs systems to then finish the SLA parts with paints. Most parts are 3D printed in ABS. Some are 3D printed in PEI and PEEK, which are high-performance materials that need to be made on their high-temperature 3D printer. Finishing and sanding take up a lot of their time and are also a big cost component.
Depending on the wishes of the customer the parts are either clear coated or painted. If they’re clear coated then Mark prints the part, cleans it, sands it to around a 6000-8000 grit, then he vapor smooths the part using his own vapor smoothing installation. He then clear coats the part with shellac. If the part needs primer then they first vapor smooth then fill and only then do they sand and apply primer.
Mark informed me that most of their parts for car parts are ABS but they also 3D print PEI machinery parts including parts they use to upgrade their FDM printers. They’ve also made bicycle parts and have done custom orders. There is a high variability in pricing on the 3D scanning as he can’t really tell in advance how much time a part will take and therefore cost. Print times also differ as do material usage and shipping. Although they have made parts for $150 or so many are far more expensive than that.
Most of their customers are classic car restorers who have run into a problem with classic cars whose parts are not available anymore. What surprised me is that they also make parts for fairly recent cars. For 1980s and 1990s Mazdas for example, in some models, an A frame pillar can’t be removed without damaging it. Customers have asked them to print these A frames so that they can be installed on these cars. Every time a customer orders a new part the team continues to build its library of digital car parts. The Tyr3D team sees a lot of long-term value in building up this library of 3D printable car parts. For now it just means that some parts are cheaper than others.
Another surprise for me is that the team also has car customizers and modifiers as customers. These often send a mirror or other part to Tyr3D. This is then 3D scanned and then the file is adapted to have the new mirror design. Then it is 3D printed. The fact that these custom parts are based on 3D scans and partially reverse engineered before being redesigned was new to me. The team uses over 70 different 3D printing materials depending on the needs of the part.
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