跨国汽车制造商BMWhas announced the success of its Industrialisation and Digitalisation of Additive Manufacturing or ‘IDAM’ project.
该倡议于三年前发行，已经看到宝马及其合作伙伴建立了两个数字连接的汽车3D打印生产线。一个位于材料开发人员GKN粉末冶金base in Bonn, and the other in Munich, these manufacturing suites are now capable of churning out around 50,000 parts per year, while operating independently without needing manual inputs.
“From the very first day of the project, you could feel the team spirit among the partners,” said Felix Haeckel, consortium leader and BMW Group project manager. “Learning from one another, developing innovative solutions together and making the best use of each partner’s individual strengths – those were key to successful industrialization and digitalization of additive manufacturing.”
BMW’s pursuit of industrialized 3D printing
由于汽车市场的竞争性质，那里的制造商并不总是热衷于宣传其3D打印成功案例，但宝马是该规则的例外。该公司宣布了这两者的技术应用蓝屋创新项目以及零件的创建，包括3D printed brake calipersfor theM850i Night Sky, and3D printed parts for its S58 engine。
宝马继续在其增材制造能力上进行大量投资，首先转向雷电竞充值innovatiQ 3D printing for prototyping申请，在打开专用€15 million 3D printing campusin July 2020. Fitted with fifty polymer and metal systems, the facility is said to house around 50% of the company’s 3D printing capacity, allowing it to serve as a hub of automotive design innovation.
汽车制造商还通过其对技术进行了许多投资BMW i Venturesdivision, which为快速液体打印提供了种子资金just last year. The promising 3D printing start-up has exclusively licensed a gel-dispensing process from麻省理工学院’s Self-Assembly Lab, that’s said to have the potential to replace injection molding in the high-volume production of identical parts.
The IDAM project’s successful serialization
为了使用其不断增长的印刷组合进入连续制作，宝马于2019年启动了IDAM项目。Integration of Additive Manufacturing Processes in Automobile Series Production” initiative, the also-German Federal Ministry of Education and Research-backed program has seen production lines set up at both GKN’s Bonn base andBMW’s AM Campus。
从一开始，宝马及其11个项目合作伙伴就试图建立更有效的3D打印替代霉菌生产的替代品，这也可以解锁新的零件定制水平。该计划开始时，人们认为这种修订后的工作流可以使过程链中的手动活动从35％下降到5％，从而使金属零件成本降低50％。
With BMW now labeling the initiative a success, it appears that some of these lofty goals have been met. According to the firm, IDAM’s contributors have managed to fit the two Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF)-powered production lines with fully-automated driverless transport systems. These carry 3D printers’ mobile build chambers between modules, while being orchestrated by a central control unit.
通过这样做，宝马及其合作伙伴建立了一个工作流，可以在其中合并生产数据以确保最高生产率和质量。在实践中，据说这一过程允许实现“创新概念”，这是通过内置摄像机实时检查的质量，并以确保最终用途的适用性的方式自动进行后处理。
Accelerating automotive 3D printing
As impressive as BMW’s feat of industrialized 3D printing is, the Germany-based firm is far from the only car manufacturer to have embraced the technology at scale. Speaking to 3D Printing Industry ahead ofAMUG 2022, Ellen Lee revealed thatFord deploys 3D printing extensively, in the creation of mock-ups, jigs, fixtures and even end-use parts.
In April 2021,Audialso announced that it had begun usingfully-3D printed hot form toolingat its Ingolstadt Metal 3D Printing Centre. Through the wider adoption ofEOS’technologies, the firm says it’s now able to produce 12 different segments of four hot forming tools at the complex, which are later used to assemble car models such as the A4 saloon.
别处，雷诺集团说它打算将3D打印整合到即将到来的sustainable automotive ‘Re-Factory’as well. The facility, which will feature a dedicated spare part additive manufacturing service, will primarily focus on reducing waste by recycling and retrofitting vehicles, with the aim of helping the manufacturer achieve its goal of having a ‘negative carbon balance’ by 2030.
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Featured image shows the BMW Group’s Additive Manufacturing Campus. Photo via the BMW Group.
