Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2023 winners
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Bioplastics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
February 10, 2020 11:12 AM

Collaboration key to accelerating use of 3D printing in automotive

Audrey LaForest
Plastics News Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Audrey LaForest
    The Center for Automotive Research held an industry briefing seminar Jan. 14 on the how the automotive industry can accelerate the use of additive manufacturing to meet future mobility needs. From left to right: Gary Vasilash of Automotive Design & Production; Jon Walker of EOS North America Inc.; Robert Hoglund, Altair Engineering Inc.; Kevin Brigden, Renishaw Inc.; Ellen Lee, Ford Motor Co.; and Ryan Hahnlen, Honda R&D Americas Inc.

    Troy, Mich. — Automakers are not short on success stories for their use of additive manufacturing in automotive applications, but several hurdles remain when it comes to further accelerating the adoption of the technology.

    Volkswagen AG, General Motors Co. and BMW AG, for example, all have a "rich history" of using additive manufacturing to produce spare parts, tooling and other low-volume components, according to Ford Motor Co.'s Ellen Lee. But automotive has specific needs in terms of scale, cost and materials that differ from other industries, such as aerospace and medical, that are also utilizing the technology.

    Last year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Lee outlined the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker's early achievements with 3D printing, too. With technology from Carbon, a digital manufacturing startup in the Silicon Valley area, Ford is designing and producing 3D printed end-use parts on three production vehicles.

    "At the time, I mentioned how excited I was because we were really at a tipping point," Lee recalled during a Jan. 14 industry briefing seminar organized by the Center for Automotive Research.

    "In the years since, I think my colleagues in the automotive industry have really delivered," she said. "We've seen so many examples from virtually every single major automotive manufacturer, showing examples and innovative use cases of additive manufacturing across the board."

    Common uses for 3D printing in the automotive industry have typically leaned on manufacturing aids such as jigs and fixtures, efforts to increase customization and personalization, spare parts, and low-volume, high-end vehicle applications.

    Even with those efforts, the automotive industry is still at the nascent stages in using additive manufacturing for scale production, Lee said.

    Audrey LaForest
    The Center for Automotive Research's industry briefing on additive manufacturing was held at Automation Alley, a technology business association based in Troy, Mich., a Detroit suburb.
    ‘Leaps and bounds'

    To accelerate its adoption, there is a huge need for everyone — from automakers and suppliers to 3D printing and technology firms — to come together, precompetively as an industry, to solve the stubborn problems that can't be deciphered alone, she explained.

    "Each of these successes took a significant amount of work, resources and efforts to solve some problems that might have been solved more easily as a group, as a collaboration," she said.

    A top priority is developing standards for material and performance specifications as well as quality metrics, which will enable more process control and help drive use and economies of scale. This means working together with other organizations — again, precompetitively, Lee said — to define those standards and test methods.

    "We want to be talking about the same thing across the industry, so that we're comparing apples to apples. … The old rules don't apply," Lee said.

    Jon Walker, automotive specialist and business development manager for industrial 3D printer maker EOS North America Inc., said production speed and part costs are among the top barriers to more widespread use of additive manufacturing in the automotive industry.

    But progress has been made.

    "Every year, the technology is getting faster and faster," Walker said during a presentation at the industry briefing. "I've been with EOS for almost four years now, and I can tangibly say that certain materials have gotten half as expensive in that time and certain machines have gotten almost four times more productive. The leaps and bounds are very, very quick, but it's still not quite perfect enough for the automotive industry."

    The auto industry shouldn't let perfection be the enemy of good, Lee warned, as it would slow down research and development.

    "Don't allow the quest for perfection to prevent you from doing good because although it takes a measurable amount of effort, time, money, resources [and] distance to get from nothing to something, it's going to take an infinite amount of resources to get to perfection because perfection is a moving target," she said.

    By implementing processes when they're ready, it will allow stakeholders working with additive manufacturing to develop those fundamental technologies that will help everyone "get to the next step of that ever-moving target," Lee explained.

    Audrey LaForest
    Jon Walker, automotive specialist and business development manager at EOS North America Inc., says despite the hurdles, 3D printing for the automotive industry is not a toy; it is "a real technology that we can sink our teeth into."
    ‘Tool in the toolbox'

    The ongoing transformation of the automotive industry — as conversations and actions toward future mobility concepts continue to crescendo — is also driving the use and development of additive manufacturing.

    But Walker, of EOS, is quick to point out that not every part of a vehicle is going to be 3D printed.

    "I think that's a bit of a crazy utopian idea," he said, adding that traditional manufacturing processes such as plastic injection molding, die casting and tire manufacturing, are still important.

    "3D printing is just going to be one more tool in the toolbox," Walker said.

    Ryan Hahnlen, senior engineer of strategic research operations at Honda R&D Americas Inc., said cost also plays a role in this. Traditional manufacturing is more expensive if you're only making one part, but that cost comes down once you're making thousands or hundreds of thousands.

    With additive manufacturing, the cost is usually consistent whether you're making one or 10,000 parts, he said. The value of additive manufacturing lies within the areas of part performance, weight savings, costs savings, augmenting parts by putting complexity only where it is needed, similar material joining, and tooling.

    "That's where the value of [additive manufacturing] is," Hahnlen said. "It's in leveraging each process's unique capabilities."

    Audrey LaForest
    Ryan Hahnlen, senior engineer of strategic research operations at Honda R&D Americas Inc., says that while direct print parts generally are not cost effective in high-volume manufacturing, there are several opportunities for additive manufacturing to add value in other ways, such as part performance and complexity.
    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Pretium to pay $252,700 in sex discrimination settlement
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Texas Injection Molding expands again
    2
    Germany's Stratec buys medical molder Natech to boost US presence
    3
    Plastics treaty urged to include EPR for flexible packaging ‘to make it work'
    4
    Phillips-Medisize closing Medford, Wis., plant, cutting 83 jobs
    5
    Resin Prices
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2023 winners
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Bioplastics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified