·In-depth interpretation: 3D printing technology in the automotive industry

With the continuous throwing of the "Industry 4.0 Concept", 3D printing, as one of the cores of this revolutionary technical support, has been pushed to the "crater" of the market in recent years and has been used in many industries. The automobile and parts manufacturing industry, which is in the manufacturing industry, is the key promotion field of 3D printing technology.
What is the current state of R&D and application of 3D printing in the automotive industry? What is the biggest technical bottleneck at the moment? What form will the future take? Such issues are also highly debated and discussed by the industry. In response to this, on the evening of March 11, Gasgoo.com specially set up a “3D printing micro-classroom” (a group communication model based on WeChat), and invited the senior expert of the industry, Dr. Xu Xiaolu, the chairman of Huarong Hi-Tech, to teach at the same time. , Guangzhou Automobile, Dongfeng, SAIC, Ford, BYD, Jiangling, Great Wall and other vehicle manufacturers, mainland China, ZF, Delphi and other parts suppliers and Shanghai Additives Manufacturing Association, Stratasys, Autodesk and other 3D printing related industries, a total of 343 people Aiming at the development of 3D printing technology, a heated discussion was held within the group. After the meeting, we will sort out and supplement the focus content, and share with the industry!
What is 3D printing?
Before discussing 3D printing cars, first popularize the concept of 3D printing: 3D printing is a kind of rapid prototyping technology, also known as additive manufacturing technology, which is based on digital model files and can be glued with powder metal or plastic. Composite material, the technique of constructing an object by layer-by-layer printing. Compared with ordinary printers, the "ink" of 3D printers is a raw material, and the stereo effect is achieved by stacking several layers of materials. There are many people who like this process to building blocks, and there are some similarities.
When it comes to 3D printing, it is inevitable that some people compare it with the CNC technology, which is known as "the classic in the field of machining and mechanical manufacturing today". In the discussion of the Gai Shi micro-classroom, Dr. Xu Xiaoyu pointed out that this is two different technologies, 3D Printing is additive manufacturing, which is done by adding the corresponding material to form the workpiece. The CNC is a reduced material manufacturing process that uses excess material to shape the workpiece. The two also have their own advantages. The machining accuracy of CNC is higher than that of 3D printing, and the parts that 3D printing can manufacture are much more complicated than CNC. 3D printing is an important complement to traditional processing methods. Its main function is not to replace but to supplement, therefore, 3D printing and CNC integration is a very good form.
The advantage of 3D printing technology is that it can eliminate the development of mold opening for complex structural metal parts, shorten the development cycle of new products, and save more manpower, financial resources and time. In addition, 3D printing technology can make the mechanical properties and precision of metal parts reach the specifications of forged parts, and ensure the accuracy and strength requirements of automotive parts.
3D printing continues to be upgraded and still not suitable for mass production. The audience who watched the latest movie of the 007 series, "Skyfall Skyfall," will definitely be tempted by the fact that the 1960 Aston Martin DB5 car was blown into pieces. . In fact, the luxury car that was burned by the torch was made by 3D printing technology.
In fact, 3D printing is not a new concept, it has been nearly 30 years old, but the emergence of 3D printing cars is not far away from us. In the first half of 2013, a car named Urbee 2 was born, and its predecessor, Urbee, was launched as early as 2010, but it was only at the conceptual stage due to various problems. Urbee 2 includes more than 50 3D printing components, but it is much leaner than traditional manufacturing. In addition to the chassis, powertrain and electronics, more than 50% of the vehicles are printed from ABS plastic. It is reported that it takes 2,500 hours to produce Urbee 2, and it takes more than 100 days to print such a car.
In 2014, Local Motors introduced an upgraded version of the 3D printer Strati. The first advancement of this car was that its chassis part was also manufactured using 3D printing technology. Secondly, its printing time was only 44. Hours. If you add assembly time, the latest data shows that it takes only three days to build Strati. From more than 100 days to 3 days, the rapid increase in efficiency indicates that the future development of 3D printing cars is unpredictable.
Just a few days ago, German independent car design company EDAG brought a 3D printing concept car LightCocoon at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. The new car shell weighs only 19 grams per square meter, which is a quarter of A4 paper.
Despite the continuous rise and upgrade of 3D printing vehicles, Dr. Xu actually pointed out in the Geshi micro-classroom that “3D printing technology is not a strong advantage in the automotive field, because the car is a mass-produced product, and 3D printing It is now more suitable for the production of personalized products and small batches."
At present, there are seven basic types of 3D printing technology, namely material melt extrusion FDM, adhesive injection 3DP, material droplet ejection, powder tile melting, direct energy deposition LENS, thin material overlay LOM, photosensitive resin tile SLA . Among them, FDM, powder tile melting and SLA have been used in the automotive industry. Dr. Xu said that there are five main aspects of application: 1. for design; 2. direct production of complex structural parts; 3. production of lightweight structural parts on automobiles; 4. custom-made workpieces and testing instruments; The production of the whole vehicle model.
However, it is worth mentioning that the practical significance of 3D printing equipment is to help you improve the efficiency of a certain part in the process of design or product preparation, instead of completely replacing the whole process. Just like Urbee, 3D printers can print body shells, weight-reducing bodies, and individual designs, but key components such as motors are still from traditional manufacturing. The biggest difference between a traditional enterprise and a car is that a 3D printing car prints a single, one-piece body and then fills in other parts instead of assembling the parts of the body.
Bottlenecks: low material prices and high price. When Weiyou asked about the main bottleneck of 3D printing in automotive applications, Dr. Xu said, “The types of materials that can be used for 3D printing are still very limited, with selective laser sintering (SLS). The mainstream materials that can be printed are basically nylon materials, glass microbead composites, direct metal molding materials and indirect metal molding materials, etc. However, there is still a big gap between the types of materials actually used in automobiles."
However, it is gratifying to note that on February 28 this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance research and development of the National Additive Manufacturing Industry Development Promotion Plan (2015-2016) proposed to be 3D printing. Cross-industry alliances with key segments such as automotive, aerospace, and biomedical, and breakthroughs in a number of special materials for additive manufacturing. By 2016, we will realize the independent production of special materials such as titanium alloy, high-strength steel and some high-temperature resistant high-strength engineering plastics to meet the development needs of the industry. This is undoubtedly a strong shot for the development of 3D printed materials.
In addition to the small variety, another obstacle in terms of material in 3D printing is cost. Dr. Xu explained, “Material cost is a relative concept. In the case of very small batches, the cost of the mold is spread over a single piece. There are many products on the product, so that its single product will be more expensive, but if there is no such problem in 3D printing, the cost of printing 3D in single or small batch is relatively low. And like this batch of cars with an annual output of hundreds of thousands of cars, if you use 3D printing, the cost is not economical at present."
to sum up:
For the future development trend of 3D printing, Dr. Xu said that personalized customization is the most suitable field for 3D printing in the future. In its development, the materials will be diversified, and the second printer will be serialized, forming a series from size and temperature.
In general, due to various limitations of materials and costs, 3D printing has a long way to go in the application of the automotive industry from the dream. However, “intelligent” is prevalent and everything is possible today. This "dream" is realized! Stay tuned!

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