In 2016, Toyota’s Kentucky plant built
366,302 Camry automobiles. That’s over 1,000 cars a day, by no means an
outlier in terms of production volume in the automotive
industry. So, what can additive manufacturing—a technology that’s notorious
for long cycle time and low batch size—offer an industry that operates at such
high volumes?
According to Jose Antonio Jaldo, General Manager at Hofmann Innovation Iberica and
Thorsten Herbert, Regional Sales Manager at ConceptLaser, it’s not a
question of pitting additive techniques against their subtractive counterparts.
Additive-based processes simply bring another option to the table, and in some
cases, they win out.
At a recent advanced manufacturing show called In3dustry,
industry leaders and innovators met in Barcelona
to showcase ideas and solutions based on additive technology. Watch the video
below to see what was on display from Hofman and ConceptLaser: an automobile
decked out with parts produced by a variety of additive-based processes. These
include SLS
nylon and metal parts, silicone and other plastic molded parts made in
printed aluminum tools, and parts featuring different finishes, including
painted and metallised parts.
In the video, we asked Jaldo and Herbert to describe the biggest obstacles facing additive manufacturing in the automotive industry.
“We have a wide range of industries and applications, but one of the biggest challenges, really, is to get 3D metal printing accepted and certified. Other ways of production are already certified,” said Herbert.
“When you start to develop a product, it’s important to also start training and education to get people asking, ‘how can we use this technology?’ This must be included from the first moment in the process,” added Jaldo. “Today, we have people who have started development without having asked, ‘how will I produce parts?’ then you have to do a redesign of the part afterwards. From the first moment in R & D, you must start education in colleges and universities for this new type of design. Companies are interested. The technology is there. Now, finding more applications will be the future.”
Additive manufacturing may not be a viable production option in the auto industry yet, but it can beat subtractive processes on certain key points, like lead time and part complexity. Instead of holding the additive manufacturing hammer and looking for nails, so to speak, it’s necessary to get into the additive manufacturing mindset and start looking for solutions that exploit additive’s unique strengths.
Do you think additive manufacturing will ever become an essential automotive production process?
Let us know in the comments below.