News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
REFORM, the vehicle specialist, develops and manufactures special vehicles for year-round use in mountain agriculture and municipal areas. For flexible and innovative product development, the company relies on additive manufacturing and the Upper Austrian 3D specialist Prirevo.
ŠKODA AUTO revealed it is now employing 3D printing for the production of components, spare parts and tools. The Czech car manufacturer is making its production and logistics more flexible and efficient by using a 3D print farm based on systems from local material extrusion 3D printer manufacturer Prusa, founded by the industry legend Josef Prusa. The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (Svaz průmyslu a dopravy České republiky) recognized the ‘More flexible with 3D print farms’ project, considering it one of the five most innovative Industry 4.0 applications from the past year in the country.
Sparks flew as Bugatti tested its generatively designed 3D printed brake caliper, additively manufactured with SLM Solutions technology. Volumetrically this part is the largest functional titanium component built with SLM technology.
SLM Solutions has started a cooperation with MAHLE, one of the leading automotive suppliers and development partners from Stuttgart, Germany. MAHLE will utilize SLM Solution’s systems to empower OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to fulfill their need for metal Additive Manufacturing in serial production. By joining forces, the two companies are improving the speed and quality of automotive components in both prototype and serial production.
Olli 2.0, the autonomous electric vehicle from the ground sustainable mobility company Local Motors, now includes 3D printed parts manufactured by CRP Technology using Windform composite materials.
Conflux Technology, an Australian studio developing some of the most advanced additively manufactured heat exchanger designs, will be producing a new set of 3D printed heat exchangers in partnership with Dallara, Italy.
Remember the LSEV? The largely 3D printed EV from a mysterious company called XEV? We first reported on this project back in 2018, when some overly hyped-up stories announced the car was ready for mass production. Back then we were at least able to confirm the project was real and real it is. It took a bit longer than the original 2019 timeline for launch, but the car is here, it’s real and it’s already zooming around. In fact, the official launch of the YOYO (the new name of the LSEV) took place in May 2021. XEV’s first fully electric city car can be driven from the age of 16 with a B1 licence.
Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) received a $7.9 million order for binder jet additive manufacturing systems from a major German carmaker for the mass production of metal automotive powertrain components at scale. Considering the BMW was (and is) among Desktop Metal’s first investors via its BMW i Ventures, that Volkswagen is actively working with HP, and that Daimler Benz (Mercedes) has done a lot of work with EOS, we guess (and we stress the word “guess”) that the major German carmaker is BMW.
Uniformity Labs (Uniformity) has successfully printed an additively designed automotive component with its ultra-low porosity AlSi10Mg, a high throughput, aluminum alloy powder that exhibits optimal material properties. The Uniformity AlSi10Mg powder and optimizing print processes have previously been deployed with a variety of parts in various industries with great success.
Brose, a global automotive supplier, is now confirmed as one of the first participants in the High-Speed Sintering (HSS) Early-Access Beta Program for the VX1000 HSS 3D printer. The company will work with voxeljet AG as a cooperation partner to further develop the VX1000 HSS for use in additive series production of polymer components for the automotive industry. With HSS, voxeljet combines the advantages of two existing additive technologies: selective laser sintering and binder jetting, giving the benefit of both SLS part properties and binder-jetting productivity. The new VX1000 HSS 3D printer has a significantly larger build volume and a faster print speed than previous systems, enabling true additive series production.