Volkswagen is is using a new method known as binder jetting to manufacture components at its principal plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Even though standard 3D printing uses a laser to create a ingredient layer by layer from metallic powder, the binder jetting method uses an adhesive. The resulting metallic ingredient is then heated and formed. Applying the binder jetting ingredient cuts down fees and improves productiveness, the components weigh only half as considerably as individuals created from sheet metal.
VW promises to be the only automaker using this 3D printing technologies in the output method.
Christian Vollmer, VW brand name output and logistics main mentioned: “Together with our companions, we goal to make 3D printing even far more successful in the decades in advance and suited for output line use.”
VW has invested “an amount of money in the mid-double-digit million euro range” about the earlier 5 decades in 3D printing. It has expanded an current collaboration with HP which is offering the higher-tech printers required and Siemens provides the software package for additive production. A crucial method stage worked on jointly by Siemens and VW is optimising the positioning of components in the create chamber. Known as nesting, this method can make it probable to produce 2 times as a lot of sections per print session.
From summertime, the a few companies intend to set up a joint crew at the 3D printing centre in Wolfsburg. The centre also trains workforce in the use of these systems.
By 2025, the goal is to produce up to one hundred,000 components by 3D printing each individual yr. The 1st components created using the binder jetting method have absent to Osnabrueck for certification: components for the A pillar of the T-Roc convertible. These weigh pretty much 50{7e488363c11ee5ef50445c8c4fa770b6e6e4f99e57faea264a05ac52abb3ffe0} a lot less than standard components created from sheet metal.
VW has presently successfully conducted crash tests on 3D-printed metallic motor vehicle components. Right up until now, the output of greater volumes was not charge-helpful more than enough. Nevertheless, the new technologies and the collaboration will now make output-line use economically viable.