Since its inception 25 years ago, 3D printing technology has advanced significantly in terms of choice of materials and precision. As a result, is it is much easier to create models with strong mechanical properties and complex geometries. From the creation of jewellery and spare parts through to complex medical printing, the technology provides highly sustainable and repeatable properties.
Until quite recently, the impact of 3D printing in the automotive industry had been limited to research and development. But increasingly the technology is gaining the potential to disrupt car manufacturing, and moving from printing prototypes to printing end-use parts.
The market for 3D printing worldwide will see a threefold increase in current revenues, reaching $21.50 billion in 2025 – a rise that could overcome some of the challenges in traditional car manufacturing, expects consultancy Frost & Sullivan. With improvements in supporting technologies, 3D printers will become faster, more accurate and better suited for mass manufacturing practices.
Responding to the revolution, many OEMs are now looking into commercially printed parts for mainstream automotive production. With the increasing development, speed and accuracy of 3D printing technology, the next step could be 3D-printed cars.
One of the challenges in developing a prototype using traditional manufacturing is having the right tools, and calibrating the elaborate machines accurately for the design. The tooling and calibration alone could take anywhere between a few days and a few months. Testing a single design idea could take months, with more time for iterations. So developing a new product requires massive R&D budgets and amounts of research time.
But when tried with additive manufacturing, the same process simply requires a 3D printer that is compatible with the desired build size and appropriate material for the prototype, says Robin Varghese, senior analyst in the visionary innovation research group at Frost & Sullivan. “The new prototyping time with 3D printing now becomes a few days to a couple of weeks. This directly translates into huge savings in man-hours, money and time to market. This would therefore directly translate into gaining in terms of opportunity cost and also higher margins. It would affect several overheads, and
even enable the companies to more competitively price the car.”
Faster prototyping
One manufacturer that has been pushing 3D printing innovations in its manufacturing is Ford, which bought the third 3D printing machine ever produced in 1988, and globally has since produced its 500,000th 3D printed part – an engine cover for the new Mustang vehicle.
Recently, the manufacturer has begun using the technology to significantly reduce development time through the use of prototype parts that enable designers and engineers to quickly test and refine a range of different approaches. Ford can print a 3D part in just a few hours, opening the door to experimentation and more radical, innovative design. These steps have allowed the manufacturer to develop some of its new vehicles, including the GT supercar. Although Ford hasn’t 3D-printed an entire car, the printed prototype parts for the GT included the steering wheel, paddle shifts and door controls.
“3D computer printing technology has totally changed the way we design and develop new vehicles. We can be more creative in trying to find potential solutions, and for the customer this means that our cars are better able to incorporate the latest thinking in design and technology,” says Sandro Piroddi, supervisor for rapid technology in Ford’s European rapid prototype team.
Template for the printer
Depending on the requirement – design or engineering – the rapid prototype team evaluates the design, and will use one of several techniques to create the piece they are working on, including 3D printing. The latter requires CAD software that slices parts into paper-thin layers to create a 3D-printed prototype.
This prototype will act as a template for the 3D printing machine. How robust the prototype part will need to be will determine whether it is made from materials that may include plastic, sand, or metal. Layer by layer, the materials are fused into the desired shape using a laser.
After printing, any excess material is dissolved away, and the part is finished as required, such as by sanding or painting. The completed part can then be delivered to the appropriate design studio or test facility for immediate use.
Co-creation and micro-manufacturing company Local Motors has taken a step further, recently unveiling its 3D printed car dubbed the LM3D Swim. The vehicle, with a speed limited by law to 35mph, is expected to be followed by a more robust version for use on main roads, that will go on sale by late next year at $53,000. Around 75% of the LM3D Swim is 3D-printed, including almost all of the body panels and the chassis. The body panels can be printed in a variety of customised shapes and placed on top of the chassis, so cars could look radically different but be built on the same platform.
The company hopes to eventually make about 90% of the car using 3D printing. Jay Rogers, chief executive of Local Motors, explains why. “The benefits are: there are no tooling costs associated with a digitally manufactured vehicle. That means that your difficulties of changing up from one model to the next are low. That’s a huge benefit.”
Scott Dunham, senior analyst at SmarTech Markets Publishing, spoke to PE about the application of various 3D-printing technologies to the existing automotive production pattern. He said 3D printing will bring about ways to improve the way cars are made today through more efficient technology. “Indeed, a lot of the biggest names in automotive are using 3D printing, and most of the activity today is taking place through prototyping, modelling, and indirect manufacturing applications. All of this is primarily used to reduce the design and product cycles of cars.”
As a result, costs are reduced much of the time. But historically the biggest reason that these companies have used 3D printing is to lessen the time it takes to design new cars and change existing designs. This reduction in design time helps to enable better products or competitive advantage, because it allows either more cars to be designed in the same period, or more design iterations within the same amount of time for a specific car, which should result in a better product.
Despite the benefits that 3D printing could bring to automotive manufacturers, several concerns remain. One problem is that the technology hasn’t matured enough to address the high-volume demands of the automotive market, owing to build speed being slower, despite it being able to compensate overall on the assembly side of things, says Robin Varghese, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
Another key problem is the availability of the materials, he says. “Since there are no standards bodies, or since the standards bodies for additive manufacturing have not matured enough, there are no standards material codes established for 3D printer-friendly materials. As a result, the businesses using 3D printers have to continuously depend on the 3D printer manufacturer for the compatible material, which typically keeps the cost higher than it should be. With standard material codes in place, the businesses could have a wider choice of material suppliers for printing.”
Legislation for 3D printing in automotive could also provide a challenge, as the car will be put through stringent testing phases to ensure its structural integrity. “Few systems in the market are capable of printing components with structural integrity to match the automotive standards,” says Varghese.
Financing and insurance are often problems in the minds of partners and customers, because any new products that are not well tested in the market represent inherent risk from a residual value and warranty perspective, says Local Motors’ Rogers. “Local Motors has approached this by applying the speed of iterative development to solve problems, and achieve customer trust and satisfaction more quickly,” he says.
Dunham does not foresee any legislative issues with the Local Motors approach, given that it is able to maintain required safety ratings for its auto body. “The finished product is not inherently different from a regular automobile, but the way it was made is innovative and enables a new business model. It will be interesting to see if this ‘printed car’ concept catches on in a significant commercial manner – Local Motors will actually have to offer some benefit to the consumer. To me, it seems a bit unclear where the benefit is.”
So what will the next 25 years bring? Some believe that 3D printing in the manufacturing process could be a real disruptor in the future. As 3D printers become more affordable, accessible, accurate and – most importantly – faster, they are expected to disrupt or collapse more industries than previously thought possible. In automotive, 3D printing has evolved to produce thousands of advanced components with per-unit process speed reduced from hours to minutes.
The technology also has the potential to bring newer capabilities to manufacturing. One such capability is personalisation. The customer could suggest preferable design, or customisations to body designs, and the manufacturer could realise these without having to maintain a separate process and production line, says Varghese.
Another key advantage will occur in terms of after-market services or components, even for products that are not in service. “The desired replacement component could be manufactured on-demand in smaller batches to fulfil the requirement, without the manufacturer having to incur a huge cost,” he says.
The critical factors that will influence the mass adoption of 3D printing are usability, functionality, and cost, he adds. “Advancement in technology will lead to the development of 3D printers with higher speed and accuracy, both of which will bring down the total cost of ownership,” he says.
In Dunham’s opinion, the next frontier for automotive manufacturers is to begin producing a variety of final-use components for cars with 3D printers, reflecting what the aerospace industry is now doing. “Matching the value proposition for 3D printing, and the scale and volumes of the automotive industry, are the challenges here,” he says.
“However, I think there is a real possibility to slowly scale up manufacture of automobile parts through 3D printing in future. Currently most of this activity is relegated to performance motorsport and high-end luxury and concept car segments – owing to the low volumes and premium on performance and quality – rather than to economic viability on a global scale.”
Realising the benefits
Local Motors’ Rogers sees a future where the advantages of direct digital manufacturing will outweigh those of traditional vehicle production. “Strong effort and a little time will tell whether our assumptions are correct,” he says.
Dunham sees no clear obstacle as to why 3D printed cars would not succeed “as long as they can provide similar quality with some benefit to the consumer – however that has yet to be proven. I think the more clear benefit to 3D printing is to the manufacturers themselves, rather than to the consumer directly.”
In terms of prototyping, modelling and tooling solutions, 3D printing is already quite successful in the car industry, and it will likely grow in this area in the future, he says. “The next step beyond this, where there is quite a bit of potential, is in the production of real end-use parts for commercial automobiles. This will come slowly, driven by a need for both product differentiation as well as fuel economy.”