The Application of Urethane Casting and 3D Printing in Car Industry

Introduction

3D Printing has expanded its use into aerospace, medical area as well as the auto industry. It’s already a mature application for car enterprises to make small-batch of jigs, molds, fixtures, and tools. Besides, as SLA 3D printing techniques and other progress in additive manufacturing appear, 3D printing is shifting to be applied in high-production, large-size and various-type parts for the auto market.

Here we want to inform you why 3D printing surpasses traditional stamping, molding, and machining processes. It’s intriguing to optimize your efficiency, lighten the weight of most parts, decrease your waste of high-performance materials, reduce CO2 emissions, simplify your molding process, and so on. Below is the experience we accumulate in accomplishing a lot of orders from distinctive automotive companies in worldwide.

The Procedure for Producing Automotive

Step 1: Automotive

Molding

After auto designers raised the ideas, the automotive company make a 1:5 clay model of different kinds of design plans. Then all the plans will be assessed, 2-3 of them will be turned into 1:1 full-size clay models. The models will go through pneumatic testing and be modified into ultimate plans.

Traditional full-size clay models are all carved artificially. It’s time-consuming and the quality cannot be guaranteed. Big auto manufacturers have used 5 axis milling machine to make a whole car model, which still needs 1 month although it’s already giant progress compared to 3 months.
We only need a few days to make a whole car model by input and modify the data into large-sized SLA 3D Printers. Through this method, the cost is half cut down, and the period is 1/5 compared to the former cycle, the burden on humans is also relieved.

Step 2: Engineering Design

The main challenge of this stage is how to design all the assembly and parts with no conflicts. A new car has over 20,000 assemblies and parts, most of them do not have mold.

Traditionally, the test assemblies and parts are made through CNC and sheet metalworking. The surface effect after CNC is dependent on the capability of the programmers. Using the five-axis machining center, complicated and multi-dimensional parts always fail to be one-step produced, and it cost a lot.
We combine 3D printing and vacuum forming (low-pressure infusion) together into a rapid molding method. Firstly we make a prototype with the highly-precise 3D printing device, then make a silicone mold under vacuum pressure, thirdly we pour PU resin into the mold under vacuum and low-pressure environment, duplicate a clone the same as the original one. Our Urethane Casting Department uses imported PU resin so that our product can perfectly compare to the injection mold and replace the parts made of ABS, PC, rubber and other materials.

Step 3: Vehicle Prototype Testing

Vehicle prototype testing mainly contains two parts: performance testing and reliability testing. The former focuses on the function of whether it fulfills the requirements. and the latter verifies the strength and durability. Testing includes the wind tunnel test, field test, road test, and crash test, etc.

This stage requires the material of the testing part have good quality. We recommend that parts, which need to be strong in structure, should be produced under CNC machining; and the interior and exterior decoration can be produced by 3D printing and vacuum urethane casting.

We have our CNC machining workshop and more than 10 sets of large CNC machining, equip with CNC programmers, targeting to serve the car industry. The 3D printing devices we imported, can produce nylon and metal parts under MJF and SLM technology, which can directly fit into testing assemblies.

Step 4: Mass Production of Auto Mobile Mold

Casting mold technology is using the easy-forming shape of materials to make a prototype in advance, then placing the prototype into a sand mold and leaving a cavity; at last, we pour into fluid and when it cools down into solid, the shape, size, and structure are the same as the prototype.

The tolerances for cover parts and cylinder block reach 10-20 ㎛, if we produce them under CNC machining, it will cost a lot and take a long period.
We adopt a large-size 3D printer with multi-laser heads to precisely produce the prototype for sand molds, while we simplify the production process and lower the cost in the meantime.

Step 5: Tools for Mass Production

Compared to the traditional factories, the design and customization requirements for non-standard parts, fixtures and measuring tools of automotive factories have doubled. Fast producing and low pricing, the advantages of 3D printing are explicit, and no wonder more and more auto factories prefer it rather than CNC machining.

We imported 10 HP 3D printers which can directly produce available nylon plastic parts, jigs, and fixtures. Due to the breakthrough of technology and material, plastic can replace metal samples by designing a more suitable structure.

Step 6: After-sales Maintenance

People always pay a lot to import parts or mold-making during the after-sales maintenance of sports cars, modified cars, and other customized vehicles. Indeed, the repair parts for automotives are also feasible to be produced with 3D printing technology.

We combine various kinds of 3D printing technologies like MJF nylon printing, metal printing, CNC machining, fast molding, surface spraying, screen printing, pad printing, and UV special printing with traditional auto manufacture, and producing instant parts become feasible. In the future, we can even print out an entire car!

Facfox’s Strength

We have a professional automotive design team and own an auto industry database. Our designers and automotive engineers all have over 20 years of experience, who can guarantee to offer the best 3D printing solution for developing new cars and parts to our customers.

Our core advantages exist in the following aspects: Full kits for a small batch of producing; fast development for parts of modified cars; best-performance materials we select for corresponding products; self-developed molding techniques.

In the designing stage, we can reduce the period to 1/10 and relieve the dependence of human beings, make an integral large-size product precisely, combine design, and manufacture plan into one solution.
In the measurement and drawing stage, our professional employees can help customers measure and generate dimensional data quickly.
During prototype making stage, we can make 1:1 full-size parts such as bumpers, grills, and panels through large-size 3D printers, avoid wasting materials and labor investment in the joint, and boost the efficiency of developing 5 times quicker.
In the molding stage, the 3D printing technique helps us producing small-batch of products quickly, save 87.5% of the cost and shorten 80% of the production cycle.
We develop large-size metal printing devices by ourselves, whose products excel traditional casting parts both in density and hardness, and the tolerance reaches 20 ㎛. For aerospace, military, and automotive parts, which require highly on tolerances, they can be printed by our devices in one step.

Specific Applications of 3D Printing

The light-weight car is the future of electric mobiles. With 3D printing technology, making light-weight and hollow structures with plastic and metal is possible. We help one of our customers design a new type of car seat and reduce its weight by 72%.

The front grille of the automotive is complex and fragile. To produce the lattice structure under traditional model machining is very difficult, and we suggest you inlaid the 3D printing parts into the whole car, realize the design easily.

Personalized auto modification has become a trend for wealthy and young people, and it’s the best area for the adoption of 3D printing. We use the handheld 3D scanner to collect the dimensional statistics and input them into the 3D design software, change and verify each plan with the help of a fast prototyping method, and ultimately produce the modified product with fiberglass.

Our Customers

Bosch Auto Parts

Taixiang, a subsidiary of Bosch, one of the largest auto parts manufacturer in the world, focus on research and manufacture of automotive motors, temperature controllers, windshield wipers, etc. In Feb. 2018, Taixiang purchased a Js-600-h SLA photocuring 3D printer from us to improve the efficiency of product development.

Before: Taixiang develops every new product by drawing, sample making, testing, error, modification and sample making. For example, windshield wiper looks simple, but it consists of many small-sized structures. It usually takes 15 days to produce a new product because errors often happen during breaking down.
After: You just need to input a batch of different design files into 3D printing devices and wait for the final products without any manual operation. It spent only 1-2 days to obtain the test parts, compare them, and decide your final plan.

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The Application of Urethane Casting and 3D Printing in Car Industry