Oz shows global leadership in 3D printing parts for US utes, Volkswagens and aerospace

By Neil Dowling on 13th November 2022 News, Technology 3D Printing

The automotive industry already comprises 16.1 per cent of the 3D printer market. Examples are numerous and, aside from being used for prototyping for testing prior to a component entering mass production, companies such as Porsche and Mercedes-Benz use 3D printing for metal and plastic parts for their classic cars.

Victorian-based Additive Assurance has Volkswagen Group and a handful of other premium European car-makers and aerospace companies using its highly-accurate and locally-developed software and hardware systems.

Meanwhile, Queensland-based Advanced Manufacturing Queensland – which re-engineers and complies parts for US vehicles including Ford’s F-Trucks and Ram utes – makes hundreds of high-quality automotive parts using 3D printing.

In each vehicle, AMQ estimates that 40-50 parts – or about 20 per cent of the locally-engineered parts – are made individually from its bank of 3D printers.

The rapid take-up of additive manufacturing has been as fast as the speed that a 3D printer can build new components.

Additive Assurance has found global success in substantially enhancing the quality achievable from the printers. Company co-founder Marten Jurg told GoAutoNews Premium that the 3D printing technique is new technology and as a result “there’s a lot of variance in the quality of the finished article.”

“We focus on metal 3D printing methodologies to provide quality assurance and checks to ensure that the parts being made in an additive manufacturing machine are suitable for end use,” he said.

“In metal 3D printing, there are three key pain points in the industry globally. First is the cost of the machine – obviously, these are very expensive pieces of kit – and the second is related to productivity, that is how many parts can you make per day, per hour or per whatever unit of time. 

“And the third one is quality and consistency. Those three things are sort of intermixed.

“Where we come in is fitting the machine-quality market with software and hardware enhancements to meet high quality standards.

“Internationally, what we have done has been a huge drawcard and led us to supplying some major automotive OEMs, aerospace OEMs, defence companies and a whole range of other companies all around the globe.”

Additive Assurance’s process, AMiRISTM, is able to detect, notify and correct variations in the 3D printing build process. It is said to offer a unique solution to inconsistent production quality which is a huge problem faced by the industry.

The business entered a partnership with Volkswagen in 2021 to develop a manufacturing system to deploy a solution to suit the car-maker’s existing 3D printers and make car components and prototypes quicker, with greater flexibility and using fewer resources while ensuring the production of exact replicas. The process was deployed in Volkswagen’s facilities in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Advanced Manufacturing Queensland’s general manager Brad Minnis said the company uses 3D printing because it allows for rapid design and verification of design and product and concept. It is also used as part of the manufacturing process.

“That’s where we get a real advantage from additive manufacturing. Using machines like (3D printer manufacturer) Markforged’s composite-capable printers really bridges the gap for us between design readiness and final product,” Mr Minnis told GoAutoNews Premium.

“It not only allows us to verify the product but also the completed additive manufactured parts in a vehicle. We can get strength properties out of these composite materials now that are comparable with high grades of aluminium.”

Mr Minnis said manufacturers are well aware of techniques such as injection moulding.

“But techniques like these still lend themselves to higher quantities, definitely in the 1000s and more,” he said.

“When you’re talking volumes below 1000, injection moulding generally becomes financially unviable.

“Then setting up things like print farms (multiple 3D printers) is definitely an alternative. Then you’re not committing yourself to tooling so you can do lower volume runs quite economically. “And you can make changes on the fly because you haven’t locked in to any sort of settings down tooling or designs that can’t be easily modified.”

Advanced Manufacturing Queensland is part of Boss Capital Holdings (Bosscap) that includes AusMV that imports, engineers, distributes and services US vehicles including Ford and Ram utes.

Mr Minnis said in the conversion of these vehicles from left-hand drive to right-hand drive, engineering work includes the manufacture of brackets, plastic trim, garnishes and other componentry in plastic and metal.

He said very tough brackets – as strong as aluminium 6061 – can be made from the 3D printers and used on each vehicle. Previously this was a time and labour intensive fabrication job that he said needed another group of skilled workers on staff.

“We could have been limited in the past by being confined to hand-fabricating conventional shapes. With 3D printing, we can make endless organic profiles,” he said.

“Return on investment is very important. Prototyping and concept work using computer machining or traditional production techniques can take a long time.

“With the printing, we’re getting parts in hand in a day, not in weeks. So the project time is quicker and we get to have a saleable item much sooner.

“I would say the cost difference by using a 3D printer would be about 50 per cent of the cost of sending the job out to a fabricator and we are not at the mercy of external markups and timeframes.

“We also don’t need an employee standing in front of the machine to operate it. The 3D machines can be started and left for a weekend and they don’t need supervision or an additional cost. Plus you can do a job overnight. No one has to be there.

“I would say that for a complex part, comparing a 3D machine with a computer CAD-driven machine, the 3D printer could slash production time by up to 80 per cent.

“Plus we’re not limited to any specific techniques or processes. Whatever we can achieve in a digital space, we find that these printers can achieve in a physical reproduction of that. So basically, there is not a vehicle that we couldn’t put our hands on and remanufacture.”

Mr Minnis said Advanced Manufacturing Queensland relies mostly on Markforged 3D machines with capabilities in metal, polymer and carbon-fibre polymer. The printers can take fibreglass, kevlar and carbon-fibre into the mix, and work with various metals including copper, stainless steel and tool steels.

“We’re getting more printers every month,” he said.

“We’re growing so quickly that we need to grow our print capabilities to match.”

Markforged director for Asia Pacific, Richard Elving, told GoAutoNews Premium that the goal of his company’s machines was to make manufacturing more resilient and much more flexible. 

“We’re trying to bring production to the point of need, so you can build parts here without having to wait for parts to come from a supplier interstate or overseas,” he said.

“More than that, using 3D printers ensures that replacement parts can be printed at the point of need.”

Markforged has worked alongside the federal government-endorsed Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre that exists to encourage a wide range of manufacturing enterprises to adopt advanced technologies and processes. Its machines are used by a variety of industries with growing use in Australia.

He said: “We have a customer in Queensland printing parts for the space industry and another in Adelaide doing body parts. There are mining equipment manufacturers today that have Markforged printers at the mine site and at the office in Perth, and they’re printing components for the equipment, both for R&D and for spare parts. 

“Australian manufacturers are willing to invest in this technology because it’s quick, exact and there’s huge cost savings.”

Mr Elving said some customers in the automotive world use the machines for components but the ability to make parts is endless.

“For example, one machine makes welding tips for the spot-welders that weld car panels together on the production line,” he said.

“That part, which is a tip made of copper, is normally $4000. It’s now printed in copper metal for $400. It was tested 100,000 times before the car-maker agreed to use it on the manufacturing line.

“At last count, it had made two-million welds.”

Can a 3D printer replace a warehouse of parts and all the associated logistics and costs? Mr Elving said it’s certainly possible and likely to happen – just not yet. 

He said for general use, the trend is heading in that direction and will be accelerated by the cost of the individual component to the manufacturer and the end cost to the consumer.

But he said that for time-poor parts supply, the instant supply of parts was ideal to maintain production and reduce downtime.

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