Automotive manufacturers have been turning to new technologies to ramp up growth in recent years. Major automotive players have explored additive manufacturing (AM) business models to create design iterations and enhance cost-effective prototyping. The use of AM in the quest for product innovation through customization isn’t only of interest to traditional automakers and OEMs. Manufacturers of luxury and electronic vehicles are also leveraging the technology.

Although various materials can be used in AM, the most common are sophisticated combinations of high-performance polymers, carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics and metals such as aluminum. Advances in these materials and technology have made it possible to manufacture automotive parts using additive technology.

AM makes customization and personalization easier, and can achieve part geometries—including consolidated parts—that couldn’t be made any other way. AM is also a valuable tool in the product development process. Because additive methods don’t require any tooling, completely functional prototypes can be made in as little as a day or two, speeding up time lines and allowing for more iteration.

AM has applications in low-volume production and on-demand manufacturing. Customers can order on-demand parts in small quantities as they are needed, rather than having to meet high minimum order quantities and then pay to warehouse excess supply, which is especially beneficial for spare parts and products at the end of life. Instead of stocking spare parts for obsolete products, companies can print replacement parts as needed with little to no overhead.

Cloud computing is another technological paradigm that has disrupted traditional manufacturing. In essence, this service-oriented business model allows manufacturing capabilities and resources to be share online on a cloud platform. Cloud manufacturing is growing in popularity because it can encompass the whole product life cycle, from design to production to testing and maintenance. It empowers manufacturers through data, streamlining operations, making them more cost- and energy-efficient and, ultimately, more productive and sustainable.

Fast Radius is a digital manufacturing partner that offers cloud manufacturing services from design to on-demand manufacturing at scale. It offers HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) from Stratasys, and Stereolithography (SLA) from Formlabs.

Fast Radius Co-Founder and Chief Manufacturing Officer John Nanry explains the company’s strategy.

“We deploy a microfactory strategy or ‘factory in a box,’ which is designed to be copy and pasted for scale. These are small carbon footprint, low capital expenditure (CapEx) factories, placed in strategic locations to make parts closer to the end user. Our microfactories are integrated with our Cloud Manufacturing Platform to provide full transparency into how components are designed, produced, and delivered locally.”

Fast Radius has established a detailed physical and digital architecture along with the ability to identify and control variables that drive reliability and repeatability, allowing for microfactories to be scaled across the globe.

Nodes are deployed to expand capacity in existing locations and new geographics–some proximate to delivery partners, enabling supply chain sustainability via more localized production.

An examination of three of Fast Radius’ recent projects provides insight into the future of cloud manufacturing and AM in the automotive industry.

Curtiss Motorcycles needed a manufacturing partner to create a prototype of its unique electric cruiser motorcycle—the Zeus 8—and the company needed it quickly for the bike’s much-anticipated launch. However, traditional manufacturers had trouble delivering on the machine’s design and quality requirements.

Accelerating and optimizing the product design phase is critical in any competitive industry. The key to innovation lies in designers being able to run through as many iterations as required cost-effectively. This iterative process is rapid prototyping. The large but sleek parts that make the Zeus 8 distinctive and polished would not have been possible with many CNC machines. Fast Radius also determined that the method used for the bike’s larger parts wouldn’t make sense for its many smaller parts.

Fast Radius evaluated each component separately and identified a solution comprising three separate production processes, including legacy and additive methods—a process known as multi-process AM. Fast Radius’ lean manufacturing model ensured that production was equally successful, producing a first pass yield of better than 95 percent and eliminating the need for costly part revisions.

Aptiv, a technology company, was responsible for designing and producing a trailer-tow connector cap for Ford Super Duty trucks through lower volume part production. The function of the cap is to protect the electrical connectors from harsh environmental exposure. As part of Ford’s delivery expectations, the cap had to meet industry quality control requirements (including USCAR-2 validation and ISO 9000 certification) and be manufactured via a fast, flexible production process at the best possible cost.

Aptiv sought out Fast Radius and 3D printing company Carbon to manufacture the product using AM instead of traditional injection molding. Once the technology and materials were locked, Fast Radius and Carbon optimized the part for manufacturing at scale. Along with its knowledge of Carbon’s technology, Fast Radius leveraged its own proprietary digital thread software. 

“Fast Radius’ software platform provides full traceability for every part that runs through its factories,” said Nanry. “For a given part, Fast Radius has a digital record of the raw material that was used, the temperature and humidity in the room when it was produced, the technicians that touched it, and other critical manufacturing information.”

In this case, the software allowed Fast Radius to design a build file that optimally positioned the parts on the build plate to account for subtle variances in temperature and light variation.

As a result of the success of this collaboration, Fast Radius became the first serial-approved external AM supplier for Aptiv in the automotive industry, conducting and passing a Production Part Approval Process (PPAP). To ensure ongoing quality, Fast Radius instituted part-specific standard operating procedures across each step of the process and developed a rigorous control plan.

The results? A serial low-volume production using a tool-free AM approach that accelerated typical time to market by 20 weeks.

HellermanTyton, a cable management product company, is working with Fast Radius to manufacture new wire routing aids for its clients in the automotive industry. After deploying its advanced cloud technology, Fast Radius has saved the company $1 million in project costs and eight weeks of lead time.

The project involved the production of plastic wire routing mounts in guiding wires throughout the vehicles’ interior, which safely secured the cables. Here, AM’s flexibility was well-suited for the addition of improved functionalities such as integrated electrical wiring through hollow structures and other more complex assemblies.

Nanry sees a growing opportunity for additive manufacturing within the EV space.

“As automotive manufacturers seek to produce varying production quantities along with the need for more sustainable parts, they will leverage today’s digital technologies and advanced manufacturing processes. Electrical wiring is one of the most problematic issues of auto assembly, specifically wire harnessing. With a single EV requiring 5,000–10,000 feet of wiring, OEMs need a quality solution for wiring caps and components that are on-demand.”

While there are challenges to AM’s complete absorption into the automotive industry, many drivers are shaping the future of the technology’s adoption, from the constant evolution of materials to its increasing accuracy and ability to manufacture at higher volumes. AM is expected to play an essential role in shaping the global automotive landscape, particularly in electrification—one of the sectors that Fast Radius intends to focus its attention on as it expands its next-gen cloud manufacturing factories.