3D printing doesn’t sometimes play a job on the automotive manufacturing line, however automakers are making a mistake in the event that they assume it has little worth, a futurist will inform attendees of the Superior Manufacturing Minneapolis expo this week.
“3D printing is an inevitability,” notes John Ellis, futurist and president of Ellis & Associates. “Should you’re a enterprise particular person, you’d higher be considering what it means to your corporation, particularly for those who’re constructing merchandise. You’d be silly to say, ‘It’s by no means going to occur as a result of it hasn’t occurred but.’ ” Ellis will tackle the convention as a keynote speaker on Thursday, November 3, on the Minneapolis Conference Middle.
A former Motorola govt and international technologist at Ford Motor Firm, Ellis has watched the rise of 3D printing for 3 many years and believes it provides aggressive benefits to producers. A few of these are already coming into play in design and growth, he says. In some massive auto firms, designers are using 3D printing in modeling, as an alternative of utilizing clay. “The trade is just not but on the level the place it prints 3D components in manufacturing, the place they may be doing 200,000 or 300,000 components a 12 months,” he says. “However they’re utilizing it as a means of shifting away from clay fashions, to allow them to scale back the time to create the precise half or the tooling that can go into manufacturing.”
Furthermore, automakers are utilizing 3D printing in validation and check. By printing components in lower than 24 hours, engineers can shortly see how the components work together inside an meeting in the true world. Then they’ll change the digital fashions till the components meet their wants. That means, he says, automakers save time and tooling prices.
Much less effectively understood is the truth that 3D steel components can provide larger power than standard steel components, opening up new prospects. Latest research have proven that 3D printing can double the tensile power of stainless-steel. An analogous phenomenon has been seen in 3D printing of aluminum. Such enhancements are attributable partially to using computer-controlled lasers within the 3D printing course of, which soften and fuse the supplies collectively at a microscopic degree. However they’re additionally attributable to the truth that 3D printers can create buildings that will be not possible to make with standard metal-forming processes. Ellis cites the instance of a producer who used a 3D printer to construct a steel honeycomb construction that supplied lighter weight, with out a corresponding loss in power.
Larger power, Ellis says, offers designers with a degree of freedom that they’ve by no means had beforehand. Ellis cites the instance of an electrical automobile, which generally carries a battery pack weighing greater than a thousand kilos. “Should you can scale back the load in different areas—physique, doorways, buildings—it retains the power the identical and means that you can ponder different adjustments,” he says. “So you need to use an even bigger battery, or the identical battery, and nonetheless get extra vary total since you’re not shifting as a lot weight.”
Essentially the most stunning advantage of 3D printing, nevertheless, might lie in its use within the automotive provide chain. The important thing, he says, is that 3D printing can enable automakers to print sure components domestically. “Most automotive OEMs are large collectors of components,” he says. “To have the ability to print domestically, as an alternative of constructing the half in Germany, delivery it, after which just-in-time delivering it to the plant, is large. You’re fixing provide chain supply issues by manufacturing an increasing number of domestically.” The consequence, he says, could be decrease price, larger availability, and a smaller stock of components.
By 3D-printing a whole car, producers and shoppers reap advantages, Ellis says.
On the Superior Manufacturing Minneapolis occasion, Ellis additionally plans to deal with areas outdoors the automotive trade. He’ll talk about medical purposes, equivalent to 3D printing of human hearts, kidneys, and pores and skin. He can even discuss 3D printing in such various purposes as plane engines and in building, as a method of rebuilding houses within the wake of a hurricane.
However the thrust of his message will likely be reserved for the auto trade, the place he says 3D printing might in the end have its best impression. In automotive, he says, lots of 3D printing’s advantages haven’t even been dreamed up but. “3D printing, even when it by no means makes its means into full manufacturing, is usually a large win for the auto trade,” he says.
