Taking 3D Printing From Automotive Design To The Factory Floor

Long used as a tool for rapid prototyping, the automotive industry has led high-end 3D printer and material sales. By slashing design costs and timescales, 3D printing has made a significant contribution to the automotive design process.
The automotive industry is in a state of flux. Significant swings in gas prices, as well as environmental and political pressures, challenge the industry to balance the economics of gas guzzling SUVs and lightweight electric vehicles. Ride-sharing and shared ownership business models are gaining momentum, and leaps in technology have put autonomous vehicles on the road, changing the way we view our cars. Automotive manufacturers must adapt to this change, while also minimizing production costs.

The Move To Mass Production
Over recent years, 3D printing’s technology proposition has expanded considerably from its heritage in rapid prototyping to producing serial production parts. Creating tailored tools to increase efficiency on the factory floor is one of the most significant emerging applications of 3D printing in automotive today.
For example, Volvo Trucks has used FDM 3D printing to design durable yet lightweight clamps, jigs, supports and tool holders for the production line. By replacing metal tools with 3D printed custom tools for direct use on the factory floor, the cost of 3D printing these tools can be as little as 1€/cm3—making the same item from metal costs 100€/cm3. Crucially, Volvo Trucks has reduced the time taken to design and manufacture certain tools traditionally produced in metal, from 36 days to just two days with 3D printing—a decrease of more than 94%.

Making Light Work
Material development in 3D printing is a constant, with engineers working on higher chemical resistance for fuel exposure and optimal combinations of toughness, ductility and stiffness for durability. New material introductions, such as those that are reinforced with carbon fiber, are making new applications possible. Composite materials like this in 3D printing provide the strength of metal, with the light weight of plastic.
The drivers in the automotive market are tough. The need for fuel efficiency is not going to go away, and lighter vehicles require less energy, whether due to higher fuel mileage or longer battery life. 3D printing offers not only the option of lightweight parts but optimizing performance-to-weight ratios through complex geometric designs, which cannot be achieved with other technologies.

Decentralized Production
Another way to reduce environmental impact and production costs is decentralized production. 3D printing allows for this while maintaining centralized coordination.
Today, if a manufacturer is going to produce the same vehicle in two locations, the design and components of the vehicles produced at each location will largely be the same, but tooling and production processes will often be different. It’s a risk for the manufacturer, but one that is currently accepted. It’s also inefficient, since it’s possible for two separate tooling vendors to produce different designs for the same assembly fixture. With the ability to centralize digitally and decentralize physically, the most efficient fixture can be created and then distributed worldwide via a CAD file. Manufacturers reap the benefits of decentralized supply chains without the risk of localized inefficiencies.
Quick Customization
At the polar-opposite, luxury and motorsport vehicles frequently require custom components that are expensive due to low production volumes and are often entirely bespoke. Being able to print custom parts without hard tooling can reduce investment and speed up production—an absolute necessity for motorsport engineers.
This is underscored by Formula 1 team McLaren, which operates in a sport that requires continual modifications. With 3D printing, McLaren produced a new race-car wing in under two weeks during the last Grand Prix season, using a 3D printed mold tool to create the shape of the wing. Similarly, within the sport of IndyCar and NASCAR, Team Penske’s use of additive manufacturing to print master patterns and direct molds, has seen it reduce production times by around 70%.
Lamborghini also turned to 3D printing to create high-strength production parts tough enough to endure high-speed racing, as well as create complex geometries in a very tight timeframe. Having proven its worth in printing production parts, the Lamborghini technical department used the technology to produce scale models and advance functional prototype parts for design verification.
Where Next?
Historically, custom parts were almost exclusively restricted to luxury vehicles and race cars, but over the past decade, special editions and limited run vehicles have become increasingly common. While mass production efficiencies still drive most of the common components across these vehicles, styling, personalization and unique features in these special production vehicles have become more economical because of 3D printing.

What will the car of the future look like? The possibilities are endless, and we will see a lot of variety in the types of functions vehicle interiors begin to serve. More flexibility and more options ultimately mean mass customization over mass production. And that is clearly a fit for 3D printing.