What are the applications of 3D printing in the automotive industry

3D printing has been applied since the 1980s, just over 30 years, 3D printing this emerging technology has been applied to a number of industries. With the improvement of people's demand for personalized and customized automotive products, as well as the difficulties such as the long time and high cost of manufacturing and maintenance of some traditional complex process parts, 3D printing technology is increasingly favored by auto companies, parts and after-sales service suppliers. As we all know, the automobile industry is a typical capital and technology-intensive industry, and the investment in new car research and development is also very large. As a result, car companies, parts and after-sales service suppliers are actively exploring new technologies to reduce material costs and improve efficiency. 3D printing technology then began to explore and apply in the field of automotive parts, especially in automobile manufacturing and maintenance has become more and more mature.

Definition of 3D printing technology

3D printing technology is a kind of digital model file based on the use of powder metal or plastic and other adhesive materials, through the 3D printer, layer by layer to construct the object technology. This technology allows us to convert digital models into physical objects through CAD (computer Aided design) software. Applications of 3D printing technology include manufacturing, medical fields and so on.

The advantages of 3D printing technology

1. Rapid Prototyping: 3D printers offer rapid prototyping, allowing you to quickly design, produce, and test custom parts, and quickly modify designs without affecting the speed of the printing process.

2. Design freedom: 3D printing allows you to make complex geometric shapes that are difficult to make with traditional manufacturing methods. You can easily modify the design and make any type of geometry.

3. Reduce waste: 3D printing uses an additive manufacturing process, where the only materials used are those needed to produce the required parts. Traditional processing methods cut large chunks of non-recyclable material to produce parts, resulting in a lot of waste.

4. Cost: Due to the reduction of material waste, 3D printing reduces production costs because you only pay for the materials you need to print.

5. Print on demand: 3D printing allows you to print on demand, avoiding inventory overhangs and costly inventory. It uses just-in-time inventory management technology to free up inventory space by printing designs in the exact amount needed only when needed.

6. Speed: 3D printing can print parts in as little as a few hours, depending on the complexity and part size, while processing can take much longer.

7. Provide more manufacturing options: 3D printing methods offer a wide range of manufactured products. It can produce individually designed and customized products.

8. Lighter: Plastic materials used in 3D printing are much lighter than metal. Many cars use 3D printed parts to make their vehicles lighter and more fuel efficient.

9. Save on warehousing costs: 3D printing only produces products on demand, so you don't have to worry about storage space or warehouses with excess stock.

10. Create more jobs: The widespread use of 3D printing will create jobs for engineers to design equipment and technicians who will maintain inventory and solve problems. More artists will rely on the use of 3D printing to deliver their products.

Disadvantages of 3D printing technology

1. Not suitable for mass production: If a large number of parts need to be produced, then 3D printing is not an ideal production process. Other methods, such as injection molding, may be cost-effective for printing large parts.

2. Limited materials: Only specific plastics with certain mechanical properties can be used to produce 3D printed parts. Some 3D printers can use metal, and metal options are limited.

3. Limited build volume: Most 3D printers have small build rooms, and if your printed parts are larger than the build printer room, you'll have to split those parts into multiple parts and glue them together during post-processing.

4. Large print costs increase: If your print is larger than the build room, the cost of printing will increase because the print will take longer. The process also requires manual labor.

5. Fewer manufacturing jobs: 3D printing will lead to fewer manufacturing jobs, which will have an impact on third world economies, especially those that rely on low-skilled jobs.

6. Copyright issues: Increased use of 3D printing mechanisms can lead to a lot of copyright issues. It will open the door to more counterfeit products, especially if the products exist in digital files.

7. Post-processing: 3D printing needs to be cleaned to remove supporting materials and make the surface of the produced parts smooth. This slows down the process.

8. Manufacture of dangerous goods: Without proper regulation, 3D printing can lead to the manufacture of dangerous goods such as guns and counterfeit money. The production process can also undermine control mechanisms.

9. Printing useless items: 3D printing can lead to the manufacture of environmentally unfriendly useless items.

10. Part structure: In the additive manufacturing process, parts are printed in layers and must be bonded to each other during the printing process. If the layers separate, the part will break.

01. Make vehicle spare parts

Because the car will be damaged and need to be repaired, 4S shops and auto repair shops will prepare some parts. However, because there are too many car parts, it is impossible to reserve every part, and inventory costs will be high. The small market with few manufacturers also leads to prolonged maintenance time.

Therefore, 3D printing parts has become a new way of spare parts, and the store can print the required parts directly in the store, which makes it possible to reduce inventory pressure and reduce maintenance time.

On the one hand, it reduces the inventory pressure, and on the other hand, it saves the time of ordering parts and improves the maintenance efficiency.

In the future, parts warehouses are likely to be dominated by digital models.

02. Make product samples

Automobile as a comprehensive product of modern industrial civilization, from design to mass production, research and development during the need to produce a large number of samples. Before 3D printing, these samples were processed by hand, CNC and other methods.

At present, in the development stage, there are already a large number of samples are produced by 3D printing. With the advancement of 3D printing technology, the advantages of short production cycle, high precision and low cost will be further highlighted.

03. Mass production of parts

At present, 3D printed parts are still relatively few directly applied to mass production vehicles, and most of them are still used as test parts.

It is not that the quality of 3D printed parts is not good, but the current 3D printing speed can not meet the needs of mass production.

Therefore, the current 3D printed parts are only used in some relatively small production models, such as various supercars, F1 cars, and as modified parts.

Due to the high degree of customization and small molding limitations of 3D printing, some topologically optimized parts can be manufactured, which often have complex geometry, lighter and better performance than the original parts.

At present, the top manufacturers in the automotive industry are increasing their investment in the research and development of 3D printing technology. It is hoped that 3D printing technology can be used to mass produce parts and bring better performance to cars.

04. Realize distributed production mode

As we all know, the automotive industry is a highly concentrated industry, a large number of parts are shipped to factories, assembled on the production line into complete vehicles, and then shipped around the world for sale.

The transportation involved takes a lot of time and money. For example, the new French car Citroen is concentrated in Chengdu production, and then sent to global sales.

3D printing can realize distributed production, and the chassis and various parts can be 3D printed locally and then assembled.

05. Print the whole car

From the current point of view, the printed vehicle is still a certain distance from mass production, but over the years, a variety of 3D printed cars and electric vehicles are also a lot.

The current 3D printing technology can already be used to print the whole vehicle chassis, frame, door, etc., and the 3D printed chassis and other parts can be integrated with multiple parts and printed in one, which can not only reduce the assembly time, but also improve the firmness.

However, it is currently limited by the printing speed and does not have the capacity for mass production. When the printing speed increases to a certain stage, 3D printing production cars are not impossible.

From these perspectives, when 3D printing technology is developed to a certain extent, the future impact on the automotive industry will be enormous.