News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
“New manufacturing processes only come once every several decades,” says Jonah Myerberg, Co-founder and CTO of Desktop Metal, one of the most interesting companies in the global additive manufacturing landscape today. In this one-hour webinar, Mr. Myerberg discusses how Desktop Metal’s bound metal AM technologies can benefit manufacturing processes at all levels.
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.
In the past, we have often seen ambitious conceptual ideas for 3D printed buildings – even skyscrapers – draw much hype but never see the light. This is no longer the case. The recent concept of a floating 3D printed concrete house has already begun construction, now a new concept for 3D printed observation tower – named Supernatural Concre(a)tion may follow suit, as the project from Dubai-based studio Nyxo is actually a blueprint that covers every detail.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has funded and launched POLYLINE, a collaborative project aimed at developing a next-generation production line for the automotive industry. The €10.7 million project specifically addresses the integration of additive manufacturing into plastic part production in the automotive industry to complement conventional production methods through high-throughput production line systems.
With a record market cap, Tesla is among the automakers that are best positioned to get through the COVID-19 crisis. The recent – possibly a bit uncalled for – tweets by its exuberant CEO do not seem to be getting in the way of the company’s climb to the top of the automotive world. And the reason is that its technology is – according to experts – six to ten years ahead of competitors (this used to be true for Apple, and look where it got). Tesla is not very open about its use of AM, however in the latest Q1 financial release, the company showed a very large, generatively designed metal part that will go into its new Model Y’s.