3D Printing Takes On New Automotive Dimensions

The notion of cars and trucks being built up as they snake along assembly lines may seem so 2024 in time as automakers, suppliers and an array of innovative tech companies find new ways to send vehicle production to the third dimension.

The use and development of 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is accelerating as the challenge of producing lighter, safer and more imaginative vehicles cost-effectively becomes more urgent.

The global automotive additive manufacturing market is expected to grow to $11.26 billion by 2030 from $2.05 billion in 2022 according to a report by research firm Skyquestt.

For years, automakers have adopted 3D printing to speed creation of prototypes, re-designing selected parts and substituting certain components.

But the industry has now moved beyond using additive manufacturing for prototypes to producing low-volume, customized 3D printed trim pieces in some current vehicles and looking to expand its use, according to Robert Willig, executive director, CEO, SME, formerly Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

“As the auto industry is moving towards more of a lightweight focused hybrid or even electrified vehicle platforms additive manufacturing plays into that so well because it allows really efficient ways of creating efficient designs,” explained Willig, in an interview. “As you might have needed three parts before now you can optimize the design and make one and make it more efficient and put material where you need it and therefore it’s lighter and stronger and more flexible.”

Where 3D printing is going next was on display at the annual RAPID + TCT additive manufacturing trade show in Los Angeles in late June produced by SME which highlighted new processes and materials ranging from plastics to composites to metals.

“One example is the development of high-strength, lightweight components using advanced materials,” said Dallas Martin, additive manufacturing engineer, Toyota Motor North America, in an interview conducted via email. “These components have shown remarkable improvements in vehicle performance metrics such as durability and fuel efficiency. Additionally, our integration of 3D printing in tooling and jigs manufacturing has enhanced production line efficiency and flexibility.”

Martin said he’s particularly excited about Toyota’s adoption of powder bed or Stratasys’s selective absorption fusion) technology, which, he said, presents significant opportunities for large volume production with high levels of reliability and repeatability in manufacturing complex parts at scale.

No, it’s not just parts printed from plastic or composites anymore. Nikon SLM Solutions has developed a process for 3D printing metal parts using what’s known as a laser power bed fusion process.

Once a design for a part is created then sliced into thousands of layers by software and sent to the 3D printer.

“The lasers will then create a layer by layer by layer by essentially welding them using the lasers so we have a layer of powder that goes down until you get it. By the way you get the finest detail, great density of the material,” explained Charlie Grace, chief commercial officer for Nikon SLM, in an interview.

Once used mainly for prototypes, Grace says the Nikon SLM process is now creating powertrain, body and chassis components as well as tooling.

It’s being used by Divergent Technologies to produce components designed through its Divergent Adaptive Production System, or DAPS, described in an interview, by co-founder and COO Luke Czinger as “automated design software” which allows customers to design, additively manufacture and automatically assemble complex structures for automotive, along with, aerospace, and defense applications.

Divergent is currently working with six automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Bugatti and McLaren 3D printing mainly suspension and bracing components, according to Czinger.

“We really started with these brands that had the most value-add and also low volume so that we could support with a lower amount of scale upfront,” said Czinger. The McLarens, the Aston Martin’s, we can hit home runs there by saving 20%, 30% of mass, making those hundreds of units or single digit thousands of units but then each of those expands into a larger brand within that umbrella. So Bugatti leads you into the overall VW Group and five, six, seven years from now we hope to be doing the vehicles that are in the hundreds of thousands of units per year with the same technology.”

The company’s technology is “power train agnostic” according to Czinger but Divergent is very focused on using the attributes of 3D printed materials to improve the performance of electric vehicles, working with several companies, and producing a hybrid-electric hypercar through its sister company Czinger Vehicles.

“The EV story is compelling for range if you can save 20% to 30% of mass on your chassis structure you can either increase range or you can decrease pack size,” said Czinger. “Typically for these lower cost EVs at least that is really meaningful for the profitability of that business. Then you also have the sustainability piece as well. If you’re making a lighter weight vehicle, you’re going to have less tire wear, but you’re also going to actually use less aluminum, less CO2 in the manufacturing process.”

“When companies were doing bottom- up, design work and they’re really designing something from scratch and giving engineers the flexibility of design freedom, what we’re finding is that parts like brackets for the powertrain can be designed efficiently so that you don’t have to assemble them. You don’t have additional nuts and bolts to assemble which adds of course to lightness of the material,” added Nikon SLM’s Grace.

SME’s Willig points out 3D printing hasn’t come far enough yet for production of heavily forged components such as heavy shafts, axles and gears, but that doesn’t mean the technology won’t evolve enough in the future to do so.

While 3D printers are popping out an increasing number of automotive parts, Willing isn’t convinced they’ll completely replace the traditional assembly line, predicting, “I don’t envision a gigantic factory with nothing but printers and I envision it as we’re printing something here that then is going to go here to get machined and then it’s going to get bolted together over here and it’s all one big opportunity.”