How Does Pollen AM technology Foster Innovation at Decathlon?

The French group Decathlon is constantly looking for innovations in the field of sports and leisure: who out there has not heard of the 2 second tent, diving masks or its windsurfing kit? The company has surrounded itself with a solid team of engineers and designers, with more than 65 patents filed in 2019. Added to this is the “AddLab,” its laboratory dedicated to additive manufacturing, which allows both prototypes and finished parts to be imagined more quickly thanks to a complete machine park, with solutions ranging from FDM to Multi Jet Fusion. Among Decathlon’s 3D printers is Pollen AM’s technology, in which the group has invested since the opening of the AddLab more than six years ago. Today, it has two PAM Series P machines that allow it to produce “right material” prototypes, i.e. functional prototypes close to the real material of the final product that will allow the users to validate its characteristics and functionalities. Decathlon’s designers and engineers rely on Pollen AM’s technology and the range of materials offered to quickly validate innovations, no matter their complexity.

Historically, additive manufacturing has always been used for rapid prototyping: with a 3D printer, a company can quickly get a first visualization of its product and make the necessary iterations. While the technology allows for this preview, it does not necessarily offer material characterization: how to test the mechanical characteristics of a future part? Its chemical properties? And how can users be sure that the results obtained on a 3D printed prototype will be the same as on a cast part? This is where pellet 3D printing processes are interesting because the material undergoes fewer transformations than a filament, for example, and therefore has characteristics more similar to those of injection molding. This is one of the reasons why Decathlon chose Pollen AM technology: the goal was to print prototypes with the material used in large-scale production to obtain properties that were as close as possible to the final part.

A prototype 3D printed ski pole basket (photo credits: Decathlon)

Right Material Prototyping With Pollen AM technology

Jimmy Gantier is the Right Material Prototyping Manager of the AddLab at Decathlon. He is in charge of the prints made on the Pollen AM machines. He explained to us: “My job is to manage the material and the way of printing. In concrete terms, a designer or engineer comes to see me and provides me, beyond his 3D file, the material that will be used in large-scale productions. I will then characterize the material to print it on the Pollen. This allows me to design prototypes that will be used for use tests or in the laboratory to directly study the behavior of the part with the right material. For certain product categories, we will then be able to modify the product more quickly, without going through molding steps that are time-consuming, expensive and represent a certain energy cost.” Today, PAM Series P machines 3D print a lot of prototypes using TPE, TPU or SEBS, especially for water sports such as diving masks or different types of soles. The quantity of prototypes designed varies according to their size, but one thing is certain: the rate is controlled.