Car made from 3d printer

Does the Czinger 21C Supercar Herald the 3D-Printed Future of Car Making?

The Czinger 21C supercar is fast and a little revolutionary, but the manufacturing process that went into it could change the world.
Czinger uses additive manufacturing, or what we call 3D printing, to make parts that are then glued together by robots.
The Czinger manufacturing method is being exported around the world.

At first glance, it was just another supercar being hyped by its millionaire maker as the fastest thing since Warp Factor 6. Granted, the Czinger 21C was fast—the tandem-seated carbon-fiber-over-aluminum-spaceframe hybrid superbeast had lapped Laguna Seca in 1:25.446 seconds. There was no disputing that, it said so right there in the press release:

“Czinger, the trailblazing company that uses revolutionary design and manufacturing technologies to build state-of-the-art, homologated high-performance vehicles, has set a new lap record at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway, smashing the old record by an astonishing two seconds!”

Note the exclamation mark! True, the 21C had a proprietary 2. 88-liter twin-turbo V8 located right behind its two tandem seats, aided and abetted by an 800-volt electric drive system with one motor for each front wheel making a total of 1233 bhp. So it could do it.

Having seen so many such releases, however, we were skeptical. For instance, the release said, “lap record.”

“We don’t record lap records outside of sanctioned race laps,” said the WeatherTech Raceway track spokesman we called.

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The lap record at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is held by Helio Castroneves, who turned a 1:07.722 in a Penske Indy car during the CART race in 2000. That’s quicker than 1:25.446, isn’t it? Well, this record is for production cars, see, and the Czinger beat the Randy Pobst-driven McLaren Senna by two seconds. The difference is that McLaren actually manufactured 500 Sennas and sold them to customers. Czinger hasn’t made any 21Cs that you can buy and won’t before 2023 or so. We could nitpick semantics like “lap record” and “production” all day.

But it would be a mistake to dismiss the Czinger 21C supercar just because of some over-anxious publicity stunt.

The biggest news about the Czinger is not how fast it’ll go, but how it and its maker will change the way cars are manufactured. For the last 118 years, since Henry Ford built the first assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan, cars rolled down a line and had parts added to them by human workers. Those parts were cast, stamped, extruded, sintered, or machined. Then all the parts were bolted, riveted, welded, or even glued together. Once you did enough of that, you had a car.

Kevin Czinger, for whom the lap-record supercar is named, has a different idea, making him potentially the Henry Ford of the new millennium.

Instead of all that extruding, stamping, bolting, and riveting, Czinger has developed a system based around additive manufacturing, or additive-layer manufacturing, which is the industrial production name for 3D printing. AM is a computer-controlled process that creates three-dimensional objects by depositing materials in layers in whatever shape they’ve been computer-programmed to become. In the case of car making, the material is usually some kind of aluminum alloy, but there are many, many materials that can be used.

Czinger didn’t invent additive manufacturing, 3D printing, or robots, of course, but he has a new way of bringing them all together.

"Most of the system is newly invented with ~500 patent filings," Czinger said. "It is a new system architecture, in-house purpose-built software and hardware for the three subsystems, and there is a new vehicle architecture.”

Wait, who’s Czinger? Kevin Czinger is something of a manufacturing revolutionary. He has a manufacturing facility in Torrance, California, unlike any you may have seen. In one huge room are a number of large, industrial AM machines printing parts, or adding layers until they’ve printed a part. In another room is a circle of robots centered around whatever it is they’re manufacturing. As the parts are printed and then delivered to the robots, the robots grab them in their computer-controlled hands and glue them together. Glue enough of them together and you have a car.

“That’s taking almost 50% of the mass out of a combined subsystem.”

Czinger is putting together not only the manufacturing process and facility I saw in Torrance, but has plans to set up similar, custom-built facilities all over the world. In most applications, you get a much more efficient part in terms of increased strength and decreased weight. In the conference room where we were talking there were a number of automotive assemblies, all looking a little like the creature in the Alien movies. I said that I like the look of a brake assembly, for instance.

“That’s taking almost 50% of the mass out of a combined subsystem,” Czinger said.

On the end of the conference table was an entire rear assembly of a car. Czinger walked over and picked the whole thing up. By designing everything through CAD, then downloading the design to the AM printer, the part can be made much lighter, with less material, and in a truly optimized shape.

“This is digital manufacturing, as it will be in the future,” Czinger said. “Today, we’re printing at a rate that if you took the very fastest machine on the planet, we’re printing 15x faster than that.”

He worked with the makers of AM machines to get the speed and accuracy he wanted. He sees what he’s doing as a revolution akin to the move from typewriters to computers—specifically, the first IBM Selectric typewriters that had two lines of memory.

“IBM said they’re going to digitalize the typewriter,” Czinger said, picking an analogy a writer/reporter could grasp. “I’m 62, so I remember when they had the IBM Selectric, and they’re like, ‘We’re digitalizing! We’re adding two lines of memory!’ Right? No, you have to architect desktop computing and desktop publishing if you want to have an actual digital system. We have 150 engineers and scientists here under one roof, like an old-school, Cold War skunk works, like the original Kelly Johnson skunk works. We architected an entire system for design, print, assembly, with what that really means, which is that all of the constraints are computer generated, including how you manufacture and how you assemble equipment that prints at the right rate and quality with the right materials. And then (we have) an automated assembly system that’s completely fixtureless, the assembly system can go from doing a full-scale large drone to a battery electric SUV with zero switchover time. None of the hardware ever changes.”

I got to see the system, but much of it is proprietary, so I can’t discuss a lot of details. But he had me sold. Sure looked like the future to me.

“We had a first principle idea which was to remove all of the hard tooling from the (manufacturing) process so that we could have a hardware base that adapted to any design,” said Kevin Czinger’s son Lukas Czinger, a Yale graduate in electrical engineering. “We can do that rear frame, do a customer rear frame, do a full chassis, just by changing the software, no hardware changes.”

About a year ago, in October 2020, the Czingers birthed a beta version of this new process. And it seems to do what it was designed to do.

“You could take that entire complex form and just 3D-print that as one solid metal piece.”

“For our OEMs, we were able to show a print rate 50% faster than they needed for value production and an assembly rate about 35% faster than they need for full-volume production,” Kevin said. “We have a dozen programs for multi component structures,” said Kevin. “Our first production programs are going to be in vehicles on the road in early 2022. And these are with brands that are within groups that are in the top five global automotive groups by annual volume.”

So, just to review, it’s: computer-designed parts, 3D printers making those parts, which are assembled by robots, in a much smaller space than typical assembly lines.

So no more River Rouge. The Czingers say that carmakers could replace assembly lines that had been a mile long with assembly stations like the one I saw, greatly reducing the lead time, cost, and complexity of car making. And you can switch the car model that you’re building with every new assembly. No more downtime during model-year changeover. And all those spare parts carmakers have to keep in warehouses for 10 years? They will be replaced by instant 3D printing of whatever spare part you need.

So is this really a brave new world that has such robots in it?

“3D printing offers the chance to pretty dramatically reduce how much effort you have to put into assembly,” said Peter Zelinski, editor-in-chief of additivemanufacturing.media. “So something like a car’s chassis or even just a component like the assembly around the wheel, the wheel carrier, you think about all of the little parts from many different places that are riveted together or welded together or held with fasteners, and you could take that entire complex form and just 3D-print that as one solid metal piece. ”

While carmakers have used additive manufacturing or just plain old 3D printing for years, it’s never been optimized on such a large scale.

“Additive Manufacturing has been used in the auto industry for some time, but the last few years we have really seen accelerated growth in the technology,” said Ali Shabbir, GM engineering group manager for additive design and manufacturing, via email. “General Motors sees value in three key areas. Prototype parts allow for rapid, iterative development of components and greatly reduces tooling costs while increasing agility in providing functional pre-production parts. Manufacturing tools can be printed to be lighter and more ergonomically designed for assembly operators, all while significantly reducing lead times. Localized printing is also promising technique, as additive manufacturing engineers in Warren, Michigan, could design a part and then send the designs to be printed at assembly plants around the world. Production parts are the latest application of additive manufacturing we have implemented. Based on volume, cost, and build complexity, a business case for each production part needs to be made.”

Toyota doesn't use AM very much.

"Very little for in-line production," Toyota said in response to a question about AM's presence in production. "Most of 3DP applications are proto parts, proto tools, proof of concepts, occasionally spare part manufacturing. The largest utilization of 3DP is for prototyping and pre-production purpose."

Toyota doesn't see it as a major contributor to mass-production yet, either.

"Not with the current technology – 3DP cycle times are very long – unless we batch production of 3DP parts or use it for low option manufacturing."

“For our prototyping and prove-out we use it a lot,” said Andre Hudson, head of product design at INDI EV. “But in the production, there’s just so many challenges, it’s a whole different thing—the materials, the thicknesses of materials, the process—to make it durable enough to actually be to put in a product that you’re going to sell to somebody to use. I still think we’re quite a ways off.”

Limitations of AM include the size of AM machines right now, which limit the size of parts that can be made. You can’t AM and entire automotive space frame, for instance.

Kevin Czinger agrees that massive adoption of a system like his in the global auto market is still in the future.

“3D printing today is not even a baby step,” he said. “It’s not even born. We had to design the materials and the machines to actually do it at an industrial level.”

I asked Zelinski if he thinks we’re in the middle of a revolution in manufacturing.

“I think we are, actually. We are in the middle of the beginning of it,” Zelinski said. “But the revolution won’t be a change in the types of parts we see today and how they’re made. It’s an utter rethinking of A) part designs and B) manufacturing enterprises. So the part designs change because, as you saw how he lifted up that component (the big rear subframe). There’s all kinds of design freedoms now to use way less material, far fewer fasteners, to have lattice structures on the inside instead of a solid form, to make things lighter and to utterly rethink how manufactured parts are designed and what they look like. ”

So expect to see lighter cars made from less material at what could be a lower cost. But maybe not this week.

Do you think we’ll see 3D-printed cars in any real volume in the near future? Or will it remain a niche manufacturing process? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Mark Vaughn Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there.

Father and son 3D print Lamborghini in their garage

Published on July 12, 2019 by Filippos Voulpiotis

When a few days ago the giant automaker, BMW, presented to the world its new model of its 3D printable at home concept car, a father and a son had already started working on their very own project, making a full sized 3D printed Lamborghini Aventador. The duo decided to create the majority of the supercar’s parts with small office 3D printers they own, and it must be said, the results are impressive! The father, Sterling Backus, a physicist, decided to turn the ambitious idea of 3D printing a life-size car in his garage into reality to show his son what technology is capable of. This example, seems to be one of many that evolve the term of large format 3D printing.

When it comes to the relationship between cars and 3D printing, it’s important to highlight that most vehicles have a few if any 3D printed parts. As of today (July 12^th 2019) the available technologies are not enough to produce a whole car model. However, that does not prevent us from saluting the initiatives taken in the industry that enable the development of car production. Thanks to additive manufacturing, many components can be optimized and therefore weigh less, thus increasing the vehicle’s capabilities whilst reducing the overall cost as fewer materials are needed. In the case of Sterling Backus, such technological developments, have allowed him to own the supercar he wished to have without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The physicist already had a rich history with 3D printing, having used several FDM printers before. For this project, the CR-10S, CR-105S and QIDI Xpro machines were used. Sterling also explains that in total, 220 spools of thermoplastic filaments were used to make the entire body. PLA was used for the body panels due to its good dimensional stability, ASA and ABS were used for rear light housings and headlights, whilst carbon fiber filled nylon was used for interior parts requiring high strength. The printing process was by no means executed perfectly from start to finish, as about 50 spools were used for several tests and failures.

In addition to 3D printing, the father and son have used other traditional manufacturing processes such as CNC machining, waterjet cutting, vacuum infusion and carbon fiber encapsulation. The physicist said: “We decided to use advanced technologies to build the car. However, we wanted to use low cost options. This led us to researching different techniques of automobile construction. After choosing to use 3D printing for most of the car body, we needed solidity. Very few choices of heat stress resistant materials were compatible with our 3D printers; so we turned to encapsulation of 3D printed parts with carbon fiber. ”

Sterling wants to show his large format project to everyone, including local schools as part of their STEM project. He hopes to interest children in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, and what’s better at attracting children’s attention than a life-size partially 3D printed Lamborghini? The physicist recalls how ambitious the idea was 1 year and months ago, when he started working on it with his son. They spent at least an hour per day, whilst over $20,000 were invested in total for the project, a relatively low price considering the cheapest version of the official Aventador retails at over $300,000! The physicist concluded by saying that he is not planning on selling the car, not to compete with the car manufacturer. Sterling describes his entire project on his Facebook page HERE.

What do you think of this 3D printed Lamborghini project? Let us know in a comment below or on our Facebook and Twitter pages! Don’t forget to sign up for our free weekly Newsletter, with all the latest news in 3D printing delivered straight to your inbox!

3d printed car, Kor Ecologic by Urbee, Strati by Local Motors

Turch December 13th, 2014

Introduction

3D printing technologies have long and firmly established themselves in many areas of production. Aerospace, medical, military, automotive and many other industries are constantly and successfully using 3D modeling and design in their new developments. Of course, the mass production of most products is still far away, due to the low printing speed, but this is just a matter of time and there is a lot of evidence for this. nine0003

Background

There have been attempts to use 3D printing to create cars for a long time. Among them are the following.

Kor Ecologic Umbree

Kor Ecologic's Urbee was unveiled at the 2010 SEMA Motor Show in Las Vegas after fourteen years of hard work by Kor Ecologic.

Starting his research in 1996, Jim Kohr, founder of the firm, laid the foundation for a lightweight, fuel-efficient, and safe unit that could change the way the automotive industry is viewed. Needless to say, he succeeded. The model introduced in 2010 had three wheels and consisted of 40 main parts, while modern cars have more than 20,000 of them. They are printed on a Fortus 9 3D printer00mc by Staratsys, which became a major partner and co-investor in the project. The car is equipped with a small internal combustion engine of 5 horsepower and a powerful electric motor. The average fuel consumption on the highway was 1.2 liters per 100 km, and the maximum speed was about 120 km/h.

Today, Kor Ecologic is working on an improved three-wheeler that is one-third lighter (550 kg), has a 7 horsepower engine, and has a more streamlined body. The cost of a prototype is about $50,000 and it takes about 2,500 hours to 3D print it. In order to attract everyone's attention in 2015, Cor is going to drive 4600 km across America on 38 liters of fuel, but for this he will need to find $ 1 million, which he plans to receive from investors and ordinary people. nine0003

Strati by Local Motors

Most recently, at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago in mid-September 2014, Local Motors unveiled "the world's first 3D printed car. "

Strati is a 3D printed car from Local Motors

It is the same as the Urbee, it has 40 parts, but why is it called "the first"? The fact is that such a car was first printed for 44! hours, and according to the company in the coming months they are going to reduce the time to 24! hours. For the manufacture, a special BAAM printer from Cincinnati Incorporated, additive FDM technology from StratSys and ABS plastic reinforced with carbon thread were used. nine0003

Watch the video to see how the 3D printing process went. Until the end of 2014, the car is planned to be put into mass sale, its cost will be $18-30 thousand, depending on the configuration. It is worth noting that not all parts were printed, mechanical components such as the battery, suspension, engine were taken from the Renault Twizy. nine0003

After the 3D printing was completed, the company's specialists assembled the car and arranged a test drive.

As you can see, some of the details in the video are quite rough - these are the consequences of speeding up the printing process. In general, this is a good visual example of the degree of development of 3D printing technologies.

Today, Local Motors has already held a competition for the best model for future mass production, in which 200 applicants participated with their sketches. Won street sports car variant named SF-01 Street Fighter . Well, it remains only to wait for his appearance.

More about FDM technology

FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) is one of the technologies for layer-by-layer reproduction of a 3D model using a computer and a 3D printer. This technology was developed by StratSys (USA) about 20 years ago. Unlike most 3D printing methods, here the construction material is transferred directly to the printing point, where it is extruded through a heated extruder and fixed on the model wall. So the finished product is “grown” layer by layer and the car is assembled piece by piece. nine0003

The material used is ABS, the same material used to make LEGO bricks. It has the following properties:

High elasticity and impact resistance.
Non-toxic.
Durability.
Acid resistant.
Resistant to detergents and alkalis.
Temperature resistant, above 100°C.
Large operating temperature range, -40 to +90°C.

For added strength, printers use this material as a composite blended with carbon filament, giving it performance that rivals that of many brands of modern cars.

The future of 3D printing of cars

With regards to BAAM 3D printers, you can see that the technology of additive manufacturing of high resolution (Big Area Additive Manufacturing) is not new, in this case the dimensions of the printer have simply been increased many times over. So far, such technologies have almost reached their ceiling of speed, which can only be increased by reducing the printing accuracy (increasing the layer thickness) and adding more printheads, which is very difficult in terms of design. nine0003

From this point of view, methods do not look like spot application of material through nozzles or an extruder (Direct Deposition), but the application of a whole layer of material at once (Bed Deposition), fused by a laser, the speed of which is huge and does not require mechanical movement of the print head.

However, we can only wait for new conceptual breakthroughs in 3D printing technologies. And, given the speed of modern technological development, perhaps in the near future we will see people who drive original cars made according to their own sketches. nine0003

3D printer machines. Umbree by Kor Ecologic

3D printers are gradually flooding our planet. Almost everything imaginable is printed on them. Why not print a classic car on it?

It's time for you and me to get ready for the next wave of 3D printing, with kids riding printed bikes and parents driving printed cars to the store. So far it is expensive and difficult, but soon everything will change. nine0003

How does 3D printing relate to people's love of classic cars, you ask? “Directly” - the American Ivan Sentch, a 3D printing lover and auto enthusiast, will answer your question. He wanted to put an Aston Martin DB4 in his garage, but the original car is too expensive, so he had to dodge.

Initially, Ivan had several options. The first, and also the easiest, is to cut the body out of the foam block at a local factory. Such a procedure would cost 12,000 - 15,000 dollars, which did not suit the enthusiast. Therefore, he thought that he could make some kind of frame, and then fill it with foam, wait for it to dry and process it, but this is too energy-consuming, a long process. Therefore, Ivan kept up with the times and decided to print his wheelbarrow on a printer. nine0003

For this purpose, he purchased a 3D model of an Aston Martin, which, according to him, turned out to be very successful. He just needs to add a couple of air intakes, tweak the hood, and voila! The car is ready. Then he simply broke the whole body into sections that fit his 3D printer and began to print his dream.

Unsurprisingly, the process turned out to be rather complicated. It took a very long time to experiment with the hood, but the final result satisfied the owner. nine0003

The first pancake was lumpy, the parts were too big for the printer. The second time, they fit perfectly, but Ivan decided to revise the design a little, so they also went into the trash can. The third time, some of the parts fell apart, due to the fact that the plastic hardly lagged behind the glass surface on which the part was located, but a little film and hairspray solved this problem.

The ideal part size was determined empirically and was 105x105mm. A deviation of 1mm leads to a complete collapse of the part. Ivan prints five individual parts in one pass, and he will need 500 passes to print the entire body. nine0003

At the moment, the hood, doors and more than 80% of the body are ready, there is not much time left. After assembling the parts, it remains only to apply a special putty and wipe everything to a perfectly smooth state.

It's time for a secret. Do you think Ivan is going to drive a 3D printed car? Not certainly in that way. He uses the printed body to cast a mold, which he then fills with fiberglass, so that in the final version the body will be made of this material. nine0003

Nissan Skyline GTS25T will be the viscera donor. It fits in all parameters: wheelbase, handling, excellent engine. By the way, about the engine. Ivan is considering switching to a BMW V12 engine instead, but that's not yet the final decision.

Naturally, in addition to iron, Skyline will donate all the electrics, seats and dashboard. When all the work is completed, the owner will finish the interior with carbon inserts.

Why did Ivan choose DB4? First of all, he wanted a car with four seats, and he was not interested in modern cars. In addition, he is a big fan of the classic Aston Martin, and in this way he will realize his lifelong dream. Would love to see the final version! nine0003

Technology

Local Motors has developed a revolutionary car called the Strati.

The most interesting thing is that the car was built using a 3D printer.

For the first time in history, the body and chassis of a car were "printed" on a 3D printer.

What sets the Strati apart from other cars is the time it takes to build and the cost-effectiveness.

This vehicle only takes 44 hours to build. The body and chassis are made of acrylonitrile-based plastic reinforced with carbon fiber. nine0003

A car is made up of about 50 parts, which is small compared to conventional cars with thousands of parts.

The car is priced at around $18,000 and is set to be released in 2016, prophesying a revolution in the automotive industry of the future.

Machine made on a 3D printer (video)

Printing on a 3D printer

It is worth noting that today 3D printers are used in various fields. nine0003

In the future, astronauts will be away from Earth for a long time, traveling to Mars and other planets. Food delivery would be impossible and they would have to create their own food.

Canadian inventor Jim Kor has assembled a small city car from 3D printed parts and is now going to drive it 4600 km from New York to San Francisco.

True, you will have to get used to driving such a car, as it moves on three wheels. The car can accommodate two passengers. nine0003

The car, named Urbee 2 by its creator, consists of a metal tubular frame sheathed with 50 plastic elements and weighs only 544 kilograms. Due to its light weight, the Urbee 2 consumes very little fuel.

When asked by Wired about the durability of the plastic car, Kor said it was built to sports car design standards, and that a plastic hybrid had about half the drag of today's race cars, for example. nine0003

Urbee is a hybrid: it is equipped with an internal combustion engine running on gasoline and ethanol and a battery. Acceleration to 40 km / h is carried out by electricity, then the internal combustion engine is connected - one of the few metal parts in the car.

According to the creator, the car's battery can be fully charged from a household electrical outlet or from solar panels installed, for example, on the roof of a garage. In his 4600-kilometer journey, he intends to spend only 40 liters of fuel, however, the inventor did not specify whether it is planned to recharge the batteries on the road. nine0003

Before taking on the development of Urbee 2, Cor built tractors, buses, and even designed swimming pools. Kor created his own company Kor Ecologic, dedicated to environmentally friendly 3D printing.

Recall that printers for 3D printing appeared a few years ago, but so far they are most often used to produce not very complex plastic models according to three-dimensional drawings (sculptures, reduced models of large machines, aircraft or buildings, as well as various scientific models). nine0003

Now such developments are mainly of interest to enthusiasts, but after some time, such printers will make it possible to print at home not only a pair of sneakers, but also, for example, an integrated circuit, a fuel cell or a photonic crystal.

However, serious people are already using much more complex and expensive industrial devices, such as Lockheed Martin Corporation, one of the main contractors for the US military, uses high-speed 3D nanoprinting for most of the parts of its Polecat unmanned aircraft. nine0003

The US Air Force is already using a 3D printer at Shepard AFB to make mock-up drones, and the US Army's ECBC Engineering Center has long used 3D printing to make some mine detector parts.

In addition, the center's specialists recently suggested that each soldier be scanned before being sent to the front, so that later, in case of injury, it would be possible to print a perfectly fitting prosthesis. A year and a half ago, British scientists were able to launch the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle, also printed on a 3D printer. nine0003

The production of parts on a 3D printer will allow many small independent companies to start producing a variety of car models. True, at the moment the technology is still imperfect. Despite the fact that 3D printers get cheaper every year, they are still quite expensive.

For example, it takes Jim Core 2,500 hours to assemble one car, which leads to a price of 50 thousand dollars. The inventor has already received 14 pre-orders for the Urbee 2.

10 cm long 3D model printed on the Objet260 Connex printer shows the proportions of the concept car are balanced

“Cut” Aerodynamic models printed on the Objet260 Connex 3D printer are ready for aerodynamic tests

Channel Charity: Wheels rotate and rotate as a full-fledged toy model

materials in 3D printing made it possible to get realistic wheels in one go

Artistic rendering of the final car model

A 3D design company unveiled the "Bleu" project, which aims to build its own branded concept car from scratch to showcase the latest modeling technology implemented in a CAD package.

The Bleu project was carried out by Dassault Systèmes' CATIA design division throughout 2013. An entire team was formed, consisting of a creative designer, two conceptual modelers, two visualization experts, two class A surface modelers and one mechanical modeler. An important role in the project was played by the use of a 3D printer for multi-composite printing - Objet260 Connex. All models received during the Bleu project went through five stages of development. nine0003

At the first stage, the design team had to try their hand at creating miniature models. The 3D-printed prototypes were only 5 cm long. These models allowed the team to identify major design flaws before moving on with further development. In the second phase, the team members used 10 cm long 3D models to study and work out the proportions of the concept car. The printed models made sure that in terms of volumetric perception and proportions, all design elements are carefully balanced and fit together perfectly. nine0003

The third stage of the project is the production of an aerodynamic model (speedform model) needed to study its aerodynamic properties. This model lacks details - wheels, mirrors, interior, and it itself must be tested in a wind tunnel. After testing in a wind tunnel, the updated and improved model of the Bleu concept car has grown to 26 cm, that is, it now occupies the entire tray of the Objet260 Connex printer. At this stage, the model has new parts - mirrors and bumpers. nine0003

At the final stage of the Bleu project, a fully functional model of the concept car was printed. Engineers have made changes to the chassis design so that the wheels can move like a real car. The design of the new chassis was carried out in the CATIA Natural Shape application, which allowed for a quick development of the design.

To 3D print the concept car, Bleu engineers used several types of PolyJect materials, including TangoBlackPlus stretchy black for tires, VeroWhitePlus hard matte white for chassis printing, and transparent VeroClear for windows. nine0003

Courtesy of Dassault Syst? mes

N Not so long ago, Daimler-Benz launched industrial 3D printing of light alloy metal components. For example, thermostat housings are made in this way. Moreover, the part is almost finished, without requiring additional processing, only the removal of the technological support. And plastic parts have been “printed” for a long time.

It's time to understand what 3D is printing, what it is, and what the parts created with it are made of. And most importantly, what threatens us with the use of new technologies in the near future. nine0003

Not 3D printing is a new and unknown technology. It appeared more than 30 years ago, and now the printing of metal parts is used on a large scale in the medical industry to create bioprostheses, in jewelry and even in aviation.

This technology has not been without this technology in the production of prototypes for the automotive industry. A solid part of the prototypes of cars at exhibitions and test specimens was produced using this technology to one degree or another. Moreover, it is used both for creating already “finished” products - 3D resolution The printer allows the finished product - and for subsequent high-precision machining. This is how parts of the cylinder-piston group of promising engines or gearboxes are created. nine0003

Cost of "printed" parts

It is traditionally believed that the price of printing metal and plastic parts in 3D printer is much higher than the price of "normal" production. But the situation is changing, and the cost of production and delivery in traditional ways and direct printing have approached the border, after which the situation will change irreversibly.

It should be noted that the price of any thing in our environment is not at all equal to its cost. And not even the cost along with the profit of the manufacturer. The price includes the cost of delivery, logistics, and often also long-term storage. All these factors together increase the price by several times, and in the case of expensive large parts that require special storage and transportation conditions, even by an order or two. And we are not even trying to take into account the costs of marketing, support and development. nine0003

In general, traditional production is really the most efficient, especially with large production volumes. But the system itself for supplying the necessary components is already much more complicated, and therefore niches appear in which technology is extremely effective, which makes it possible to produce parts in small volumes directly at the place of production. Including, in a single copy or with numerous modifications. For example, using 3D Printer...

Making a rare version of one of the car parts with a blueprint is much easier than looking for components in good condition on a twenty-year-old car. Especially if the part is one of the most frequently broken, and the car is rare. Using 3D scanning, you can create an image of the part "on the basis of the preserved fragments" or on the basis of its mirror version. nine0003

It is also very convenient to make changes: to strengthen the weak point of the case, remove unnecessary elements or something like that . .. And most importantly, there is no need to create a stock of parts that may never come in handy. There will be enough material, printer and 3D digital models.

Major suppliers of CAD software products have long been optimized to work with 3D printing technologies, so that for the first time the ideal production formula is realized: from the drawing directly to the finished product. But casting and machining require a lot of additional effort, the creation of various devices and infrastructure ... With 3D printing, it turns out almost “at the behest of a pike” - and here is the finished product. nine0003

Mass production also has many "environmental niches" for 3D technologies. Volumetric parts of complex shape, for example, may even be cheaper in price than those produced in the classical way using casting or from a solid billet. Especially when it comes to dimensions of more than a meter with high precision manufacturing.

Thin-walled light alloy parts can also be cheaper to print than cast. This is not to mention the production of plastic elements and small series parts. With the development of new technologies, it will be possible to significantly improve the passive safety of machines by introducing units with an ideal calculation of absorption energy, using a much more compact arrangement of units, and generally giving free rein to imagination. nine0003

Relationship to 3D print as a "frivolous" technology is time to leave in the past. The strength characteristics of metal parts produced with its help are not inferior to ordinary cast ones, although somewhat more expensive alloys are used. But the price of the material is usually 15-20% higher, and the losses during printing are several times less. And everything is fine with the dimensions, in Amsterdam they are “printing” a real pedestrian bridge with a length of about 30 meters.

Materials for

Most of the parts, of course, are still plastic, but metal alloys and various types of concrete are also used in 3D print. For the automotive industry, it is plastics and metals that are most interesting. And the choice of materials is quite large. The most promising for use are steel and aluminum, but there are many electrical components in machines, conductors of complex shape and other elements for which copper would be useful.

Metal to 3D Titanium remains the most popular printing material. It has excellent strength characteristics, and it is in demand in the field of prosthetics, in the space and aircraft industries, which are still leading in the application of the technology we are interested in. nine0003

Stainless steel with a high cobalt and nickel content is also excellent, and a number of industrial printers work with this material, since it is relatively inexpensive. Of course, it is several times more expensive than the cheapest grades of steel, but, nevertheless, it is noticeably cheaper than non-ferrous metals. And you probably know the strength of steel products.

Aluminum as material for 3D printing is gaining popularity. Products made from it are light, have good resistance to corrosion in the open air, plus it is easy to process and, again, inexpensive. The relatively low initial cost of installations working with this material is also important. It is used in "home" metal 3D technologies print available to small businesses. Unfortunately, in the powder state, it is explosive, as, indeed, titanium. nine0003

Cobalt Chromium and Inconel are examples of specialized alloys for 3D printers for dental, medical and aerospace applications. There are more and more materials like this. Special materials for the new technology will continue to appear, as the technology develops, more and more niches will need to be filled.

Copper, gold, silver are also very common materials for 3D print. Of course, while this is mainly jewelry printing. But copper and silver have also found use as a material for making circuit boards for electronics. True, not “real 3D” is often used for this. ”, but a kind of “2. 5D” printer that creates details with a relief height within a few millimeters on a ceramic substrate. nine0003

Technologies 3

stamps

In terms of technology, the most expensive EBMs are most relevant for mass production and DED technologies. Behind obscure abbreviations are Electron Beam Manufacturing (formation of a product from powder metal under the influence of an electron beam) and Directed Energy Deposition (deposition of metal from powder or wire under the influence of a laser beam or plasma arc). Both technologies make it possible to create products with a metal quality higher than that of casting, with a perfectly homogeneous structure and with high precision. nine0003

EBM forms a melt in a strictly defined zone, and DED literally "knocks out" the molten metal to the desired surface. Both technologies can be used not only to create a new part, but also to restore an existing one. Both technologies allow you to change the composition of the material in volume, make the surface harder than the base, strengthen especially vulnerable spots and similar "tricks".

The main problem is speed. So, the Insstek MX3 serial machine with DED technology has a working area of 1000 x 800 x 650 mm with a layer thickness of 0.089-0.203 mm, and the speed is about 2 layers per minute. Alternate Arcam Q 20 Plus has a working area of 350 x 380 mm, the accuracy of manufacturing the part is up to 140 nm and the speed of work is about 4 liters of the volume of the part per hour.

More mass and less precise SLM technology /DMLS also has good prospects. It is SLM technology - selective laser melting , that is, selective laser melting, is applied by Mercedes-Benz for the production of automotive components. Related technology SLS - selective laser sintering, which means "selective laser sintering", is used for plastic parts. nine0003

The company intends to supply parts in this way not only for new cars, but also for its classic cars. And it will be a real “original”, only completely new and passed all the tests. All these technologies are based on layer-by-layer sintering of a powder volume by a laser beam. The quality of the material in this case is lower than that of EBM /DED technologies, and the part will be strictly homogeneous. But, nevertheless, the output quality is not lower than that of conventional casting and stamping.

DMLS process simple enough. The required amount of metal powder is fed into the working chamber, its layer is leveled by a dispenser and excess material is removed. After that, the laser “bakes” the material along the required contour, and the excess material is again removed. Again and again, cycle after cycle, with an accuracy of about 20 microns and with layer thicknesses up to 100.

The technology is waste-free and fast enough. Mass-produced printers are already available, with speeds above 9 kilograms per minute, and the ability to parallelize the process can significantly increase it. That's just the cost of equipment is growing exponentially after the dimensions of the parts. It is by this technology that parts of the Super engine are made of Inconel alloy. Draco (in particular, combustion chambers) by SpaceX Elon Musk, who is more familiar to motorists as the creator of Tesla . nine0003

For smaller volumes, the much cheaper Binder Jetting technology works well. This technology is interesting because it is used to create not only metal parts. The part is essentially created from particles of any material glued together. But if metal is used, then after creation it can be “baked”, and the metal particles form a single whole. The quality of the material, of course, is much lower. But the technology is noticeably cheaper than others and allows you to create parts from compositions of materials. nine0003

Similar technology is used in the most affordable 3D printer for printing metal parts - Mini Metal Maker, about $ 1,600. True, the accuracy is no longer 20 or 100 microns, but not less than 500. But the dimensions are almost unlimited, because neither a vacuum nor a special environment in the working area is required.

What is the result?

Progress in the field of 3D printing is so fast that within literally a decade, a revolution in the production of automotive components and logistics for its maintenance is possible.