News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Spanish sports car brand CUPRA is seeing the benefits of adopting 3D printing on the racetrack. The company, which has integrated 3D printed components made using HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology into its new CUPRA Leon Competición vehicle, has reported greater efficiency in its production process thanks to AM.
At the BAUTEC conference in Berlin, Italcementi presented a new concrete mixture developed specifically for construction 3D printing applications. The new mixture is developed to be fast setting, in order to enable deposition of more complex geometries, and also more sustainable, in line with the company’s targets for more sustainable construction processes.
Chinese construction 3D printing company WinSun is deploying its technology to help contain and fight the coronavirus outbreak in Hubei province. According to a recent release, WinSun plans to 3D print and ship 200 isolation wards to the region, which will be used to house medical staff.
Last week, at the International Bautec construction exhibition in Berlin, visitors were given the unique opportunity to see a house being 3D printed each day. Danish construction 3D printing company COBOD and its partner PERI Group undertook the ambitious project to demonstrate how the BOD2 construction 3D printer is capable of printing a house in less than 24 hours.
Although we have not been able to establish a direct channel with their team, EDAG remains one of the most interesting, innovative and capable firms in the entire automotive additive production scenario. After showing some of the interesting cases and research studies in the automotive segment, the German design studio is now tackling materials with the CustoMat_3D research project.
Luxury car manufacturer Porsche has introduced a new concept for sports car seating that leverages 3D printing and lattice design. The seating concept, called “3D-printed bodyform full-bucket seat,” enables customers to personalize their seat for comfort and is partly inspired by seat fittings designed for professional motorsports.
The overlap between the additive manufacturing world and the automotive industry is growing each year. At the forefront of their respective disciplines are Desktop Metal and the Ford Motor Company, whose recent partnership has improved creativity and productivity at the world-renowned carmaker.
The Ford Motor Company today announced its strategy to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the plan, it is partnering with 3M and GE Healthcare to help scale up production capabilities for medical equipment and necessary supplies using its expansive manufacturing capacity. The automotive leader is also leveraging its in-house 3D printing capability to produce components for personal protective equipment, and plans to assemble over 100,000 face shields per week.
Japanese automaker Honda is hoping to reduce the impact of its vehicles on the environment using smart design and advanced manufacturing processes. Recently, for instance, the automaker’s R&D department teamed up with software company Autodesk to redesign and 3D print a crankshaft component to make it lighter and more fuel-efficient.
The Bugatti factory – like those of just about every major automaker in Europe – is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, development and automated production is ongoing at APWORKS, one of its suppliers. The advanced manufacturing firm is additively manufacturing the extremely lightweight and highly temperature-resistant exhaust tailpipe for the latest Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport.