From In-House Iteration to Large-Format Production: INTAMSYS Supports Stella Juva

At a Glance

Manufacturing for an Off-Grid Medical Vehicle

Developed by Solar Team Eindhoven, a team of 23 students from Eindhoven University of Technology, Stella Juva is designed to bring solar-powered mobility and medical capability into one vehicle. Its roof-mounted solar panels generate energy for both driving and onboard medical equipment, supporting operation in remote areas where access to electricity, fuel, and healthcare infrastructure may be limited.

For the engineering team, this mission translates into a demanding set of component requirements. Parts must contribute as little weight as possible while remaining strong enough for vibration, rough terrain, airflow, heat, and changing environmental conditions. They must also fit around custom-built thermal-management, filtration, electrical, medical, and interior systems within a tightly constrained vehicle architecture.

Most of these parts are highly customized and required only in small quantities. Industrial FFF 3D printing provides a better match than tooling-intensive manufacturing by allowing the team to move directly from design to functional hardware, revise geometries as systems evolve, and use different engineering materials according to each part’s operating conditions.

One Workflow, Two Forms of Support

INTAMSYS supports Solar Team Eindhoven through a two-level additive manufacturing workflow. A FUNMAT HT in the team’s workshop provides immediate in-house capacity for smaller parts, while INTAMSYS supplies on-demand production and application engineering for larger components printed on the FUNMAT PRO 610HT.

This combination gives the team both speed and scale. Routine design changes can be handled close to the vehicle, without waiting for an external production cycle. When a part exceeds the local machine’s build capacity or requires more specialized process planning, the team can extend the same additive manufacturing approach through INTAMSYS.

In-House Agility with the FUNMAT HT

Solar Team Eindhoven uses the FUNMAT HT to manufacture small parts installed inside Stella Juva. Its material set includes PA12-CF, ABS, PLA, and flame-retardant PC-FR.

With an industrial FFF system available directly in the workshop, engineers can verify fit, refine interfaces, and produce low-volume functional parts as the vehicle develops. This is particularly valuable in a one-off platform, where components must follow the evolving geometry of multiple custom systems rather than a standardized vehicle architecture.

The FUNMAT HT therefore serves as more than a prototyping tool. It gives the team a responsive manufacturing resource for producing application-specific parts at the point of development.

Large Functional Parts, Produced On Demand

For components beyond the team’s in-house build capacity, INTAMSYS produced four large functional parts on the FUNMAT PRO 610HT. Installed in the radiator, heater, and filter-holder systems, the parts were manufactured in PC-FR, PA6-CF, PC-ABS, and ABS.

These applications required more than simply enlarging a small-part printing process. One component positioned behind the radiator, for example, had to remain strong and stiff under airflow at vehicle speeds of up to approximately 140 km/h, while offering moderate impact resistance and limited sensitivity to moisture.

Material selection also had to be considered together with geometry and post-processing. For a part with an enclosed internal cavity, conventional support would have been difficult to remove mechanically. INTAMSYS therefore changed the material strategy from PC-ABS to PA6-CF so that water-soluble support could be used. This preserved the required functional performance while providing a practical way to clear support from otherwise inaccessible internal features.

Radiator component printed in PA6-CF, enabling water-soluble support for otherwise inaccessible internal features.

This is where on-demand production delivered value beyond access to a larger machine. INTAMSYS application engineers aligned material behavior, support strategy, geometry, and operating conditions before printing. The FUNMAT PRO 610HT then provided the 610 × 508 × 508 mm build capacity needed to manufacture the large components at the required scale.

Additive Manufacturing at the Scale Each Part Requires

The collaboration connects two complementary production models within one project. In-house printing gives Solar Team Eindhoven the freedom to iterate quickly and manufacture smaller parts exactly when they are needed. On-demand printing extends that freedom to larger components without requiring the team to maintain large-format production capacity of its own.

The same strategy also spans two component scales. The FUNMAT HT supports small, frequently changing parts close to the development process, while the FUNMAT PRO 610HT enables large, integrated components for functional vehicle systems. Across both platforms, the material and process can be matched to the application rather than forcing every part into a single manufacturing route.

Stella Juva prepares to hit the road in Kenya.

Following its unveiling in July 2026, Stella Juva received approval from the Dutch Vehicle Authority and was cleared for public roads. In August, the team brought the vehicle to Kenya for real-world validation with Amref Health Africa. After completing customs clearance and preparing Stella Juva locally, the team was ready to begin public-road testing on a route toward Naivasha, where significant elevation changes would provide an early test of the vehicle under local operating conditions.

From workshop iterations to large-format functional parts, industrial FFF gave Solar Team Eindhoven a scalable way to turn specialized designs into vehicle-ready components. For a project built around self-sufficiency, that manufacturing flexibility was a natural fit.

Solar Team Eindhoven partners and supporters