"At the extreme depths many of our customers are required to work, there is no room for error," said Pete Ryan, senior engineer, Kirby Morgan Dive Systems Product Development. "Divers require us to provide industrial safe, reliable, underwater breathing equipment, sometimes tailored specifically to their needs."

For years, Kirby Morgan outsourced the professional production of 3D models to service bureaus. The shipping and turnaround time needed to produce 3D models made it difficult to move through the design phase quickly and efficiently.

Kirby Morgan was in search of a more time-efficient process to build accurate, cost-effective 3D models used in the development of its dive systems. By bringing 3D printing capabilities in-house, they sought to cut model production time and to obtain complete control over the product design process. "Dimension was the obvious choice for us," Ryan said. "The durability and accuracy of the models produced meets our high standards and the purchase price of the Dimension 3d printing machine was highly competitive."

Kirby Morgan has experienced significant improvements in its design process since the purchase of the Dimension 3D professional printer. When the U.S. Military requested a modified regulator with a higher level of breathing performance than the standard unit Kirby Morgan was producing, the Dimension 3D printer was put to the test.