American Vehicle Conversions | Case Study | Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta helps American Vehicle Conversions save time and money, and improve quality

Customer Success Story: American Vehicle Conversions

American Vehicle Conversions is a car conversion specialist for American imported vehicles. It was established three decades ago to conduct a true mirror-image right-hand drive conversion process for both new and used imported vehicles. The business transfers all components over where possible, replicating the original engineering and design of the vehicle. This includes using factory replacements parts where possible and designing and manufacturing original equipment manufacturer (OEM) quality replacement parts where required.

Summary

“The Markforged 3D printers, provided by Konica Minolta, have made manufacturing so much easier and now we can do everything in-house. The printers mean we can create prototypes, make changes, and then produce the end use part, which means fewer errors and the ability to create the most effective end use part for our needs. Once we’ve installed and vinyl-wrapped the parts, the car looks like is has a brand-new dash.”

Craig Jones Owner and Founder, American Vehicle Conversions

The Challenge

  • Vehicle conversions often required expensive custom-built parts
  • Using fibreglass moulds was costly and the quality was variable
  • The cost and time to source custom parts delayed projects

Changing left-hand drive vehicles to right-hand drive for compliance with Australian safety regulations is more complex than simply swapping all the controls over to the other side of the car. Doing so would result in an ergonomically incorrect layout with none of the controls matching up. While factory- original parts were sometimes available to help with the conversion process, in many cases, these parts simply didn’t exist because the vehicle was never originally engineered to be configured as a right-hand drive.

To overcome this challenge, American Vehicle Conversions need to custom-build parts. Doing this with fibreglass moulds was expensive and time consuming and the fibreglass parts tended to deteriorate over time. The moulds also break down over time and, if just one portion isn’t quite right, the entire process needs to begin again. This made the conversion process expensive and time consuming for American Vehicle Conversions and potentially frustrating for its customers.

Craig Jones, owner and founder, American Vehicle Conversions, said, “Using fibreglass was limiting and costly and it meant that American Vehicle Conversions had less control over the process. We had to work with third parties for the fibreglass component and this created even more costs, especially if something wasn’t quite right.

“Something as simple as a heater box in the past could cost $17,000 and the result wasn’t always completely perfect. American Vehicle Conversions needed a better way to custom- build the parts we needed to convert vehicles in a more cost- effective manner with a more consistent, repeatable, high- quality outcome.”

The Solution

  • Markforged Mark Two and 3D Systems Figure 4 3D printers deployed by Konica Minolta

The team at American Vehicle Conversions realised that 3D printing was a potential solution that could make it easier to custom-build parts at a lower cost with a higher-quality

outcome. Purchasing 3D-printed parts from a supplier was a non-starter because such parts were also expensive and hard to source. Therefore, the company determined that it needed to have 3D printing capabilities in-house.

Craig Jones said, “After some lengthy enquiries about 3D printers, we discovered Markforged industrial 3D printers. These printers could use carbon fibre and Kevlar as well as fibreglass to 3D print the parts, delivering the strength we were looking for. The Markforged team put us in touch with Konica Minolta to purchase the 3D printer and get it up and running.”

After purchasing the Markforged Mark Two 3D printer, American Vehicle Conversions also added a 3D Systems Figure 4 3D printer, which lets it print more detailed parts and even rubber parts.

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