Examples of 3D Printing in the Automotive Industry

The automotive industry is facing demands on all fronts: the demand for newer, higher-performing vehicles, as well as the need to optimize production and streamline supply chains and logistics. One technology that is helping to address these challenges is 3D printing.

3D printing is increasingly being explored in all areas of automotive manufacturing. In addition to its extensive use for rapid prototyping, the technology is also used to produce tooling and, in some cases, final parts.

The custom 3D printed seats

A new concept of sports car seats has recently been introduced that takes advantage of 3D printing and trellis design.

The new seats feature 3D printed polyurethane center and back sections, which can be customized with three levels of stiffness: stiff, medium and soft.

For the custom seats, the motorsport industry was taken as a cue, where driver-specific custom seat trim is the norm.

It is planned to 3D print prototype seats for use on European tracks, with customer feedback used to develop the final road-legal models.

In the future, they want to expand seat customization beyond stiffness and color, customizing the seat to the customer’s specific body profile. 3D printing currently remains the only technology that can enable this level of customization.

3D for Automotive Brackets

Brackets are small and rather mundane parts, which were difficult to optimize in the past, when engineers were constrained by traditional manufacturing methods. Today, engineers can design optimized brackets and bring these designs to life with the help of 3D printing.

Cost savings, faster production, and design optimization are typically the main reasons to use additive manufacturing for brackets.

Engineers are able to incorporate some really cool features into the parts, including 3D printed branding and a QR code, along with numbers to identify the specific and unique part.

Adding these features during the manufacturing process is something that can only be achieved with digital manufacturing, as no subtractive method could ever compete in terms of cost and production time.

3D print high-performance parts

Virtual design testing is a critical part of the high-performance vehicle design process. Using virtual testing, more than 500 3D cooling and aerodynamics designs were analyzed to help achieve downforce, braking and cooling targets.

In addition to using 3D printed prototypes for design validation and functional testing, the cars are also equipped with 3D printed structural brake components.

Additive manufacturing will continue to be more and more ingrained in the day-to-day part of manufacturing instead of being an exception to the norm, it will be much more accepted because of the way it is done.

3D Printed Manufacturing Tools

Ituses 3D printers to create jigs and fixtures for its assembly line; Whileprototyping remains the primary application of 3D printing within the automotive industry, the use of tooling technology is rapidly gaining traction.

They started experimenting with 3D printers for the production of tooling equipment at the factories and, after the success of the pilot projects, almost entirely the production of tools was converted to 3D printing.

There are a number of benefits to using the technology for this application.

In-house tool production reduces the cost of manufacturing tools for the automotive manufacturer by 90% and reduces lead times from weeks to days. To give an example, a tool such as a tailgate badge would take 35 days to develop using traditional production and would cost up to 400 euros. With 3D printing, the same tool can be produced in four days at a cost of just 10 euros.

It is estimated that using 3D printing for tooling has saved significant capital while improving ergonomics, productivity, and operator satisfaction.

When it comes to manufacturing aids, 3D printing is growing rapidly as an alternative to more established ways of manufacturing tools. In a few years, we’ll likely see more automotive OEMs switching to 3D printed tooling to improve the efficiency of their production and the performance of their tools.

3D Dice That Save Car Wheels From Thieves

How to prevent thieves from stealing car wheels? That demand is being answered with a program in Europe to 3D print custom locking lug nuts for more theft-resistant cars.

Normally, cars have a single locking lug nut per wheel to prevent it from being removed without the special wrench attached to the wing wrench. But these can be defeated, so you’re 3D printing models for locks that can’t be cloned so easily.

Using 3D printers, locks are created using a custom template for each customer. By using a sound wave pattern from a simple sentence,you can create a completely unique pattern that provides an extra layer of security similar to fingerprint recognition.

Once designed, the lock and key are 3D printed as a single stainless steel part. After cutting the two, they only need a little polishing to work.

The advantage of these locks is that they are virtually impossible to clone. With unevenly spaced ribs within the nut and indentations that widen as they go deeper, it is impossible for thieves to make a wax imprint of these strands without breaking the wax.

Making wheels safer and offering greater product customization are further proof that 3D printing is a game-changer for automotive manufacturing.

Greater Personalization with 3D Printing

With the growing demand for personalized products and personalized experiences, automakers are increasingly offering their customers the ability to customize their vehicles.

Automakers’ customers can design and order custom 3D printed panels for the front and rear bumpers, with a choice of basic models in different colors.

Custom parts are printed from a durable, UV-resistant thermoplastic using 3D printers. The ability to produce customized, one-off designs quickly and cost-effectively was one of the main reasons for choosing 3D printing over traditional processes.

In Europe, metal technology is now being implemented with an eye to custom parts such as tailgates, gear knobs and key fobs.

It is planned to offer customers the ability to add custom lettering to these components. it is also noted that these custom components will serve as a proof of concept for the development of 3D printed structural parts for cars within the next few years.

One benefit of using 3D printing for customization is that it allows automakers to reduce lead times and production costs for low-volume parts. This is partly because the technology eliminates the need to create individual tooling aids for each custom part, a prospect that would be financially unfeasible.

In the future, automakers will still need to develop more use cases for custom 3D printed components to go beyond simple coating parts. That said, as technology advances, the possibilities for customizing the car with 3D printing look set to expand at a much greater rate in the coming years.

3D printing for motorsports

In Formula One racing, the performance of a race car often makes the difference between a win or a loss. However, designing a successful race car is a challenge, not least because of the high costs and the rapid development cycle required.

Wind tunnel testing is one of the essential steps in the process of developing a race car.

Car manufacturers use wind tunnels to check and adjust the aerodynamic properties of a race car. During the wind tunnel testing phase, a model of a car is placed on a treadmill to test the car’s performance in a simulated race environment.

Currently, 3D printing is most commonly used in motorsports to create parts to be tested on this race car replica – scale models of Formula 1 race cars have been used, with many of its components 3D printed.

Engineers are able to print parts such as front fenders, brake ducts, suspension, and engine covers much faster and with greater design flexibility than traditional manufacturing allows.

3D printing is used for the development of electric race cars to speed up the process and meet deadlines, with parts produced in days instead of weeks needed with CNC machining or molding. By enabling an extremely flexible and very quick development process, 3D printing helps to get the car on the road on schedule.

3D Printing Spare Parts for Classic Cars

Spare parts are another application of 3D printing in the automotive industry.

Parts are supplied for vintage and discontinued models using 3D printing to produce rare, low-volume spare parts for older inventory.

Many of these parts are no longer in production, and the tools needed to produce them do not exist or are in poor condition. Producing new tool aids using traditional methods is inherently cost-prohibitive, particularly given the low volumes involved.

With the aim of solving these challenges, they started 3D printing these parts (metal and plastic) on demand.

The printing process involves melting metal powder (or sintering for plastics) with a high-energy laser beam in a precise pattern, thus building the three-dimensional object one layer at a time. The advantage is that parts can be made without additional tools and only when needed, helping to save on tooling and storage costs associated with producing these spare parts using conventional methods.

3D printing parts that are rarely ordered or discontinued is a growing trend within the automotive supply chain.