The discussion on whether 3D printing will be a viable solution for car parts manufacturing can safely be consigned to the past, I believe. The URBEE concept car has already gone some way to accomplish that and now EDAG, a leading provider of engineering services for the automotive industry has, in my opinion, succeeded in making it a non-issue as it presents a fully 3D printed car concept at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.
I concede, I can get over excited about this type of news, so let us try to contextualize it. As late as last year, 3D printing in the automotive industry was still considered by many as a ‘potentially’ viable solution for production applications. Although for prototyping applications, 3D printing has been used for automotive product development for some years. And although what EDAG proposes is still a few years away (but with 3D printing, really, who can tell?) it shines a bright light on what can be accomplished through additive manufacturing in the car industry.
The EDAG GENESIS concept will use an example of body sculpture design based on the bionic patterns of a turtle, which has a shell that provides protection and cushioning while being part of the animal’s bone structure. What EDAG wants to make perfectly clear to the public with this turtle-supercar concept is that this organic-based structure cannot be built using conventional tools. And that it can be 3D printed as a single piece.
To understand which process could one day make this possible, EDAG’s Competence Center for Lightweight Construction studied the potential of many different additive manufacturing technologies, in terms of structural relevance, possible part size, production tolerance and manufacturing costs. The main technologies taken into consideration included selective laser sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), laser stereolithography (SLA) and fused deposition modelling (FDM).
Guess which one won?
Ok we’ll tell you. It was fused deposition modelling, as it theoretically makes it possible for components of any size to be produced, with no predetermined space requirements (FDM house building dreamers, such as Massimo Moretti, Enrico Dini, Behrokh Khoshnevis and DUS know all about that). EDAG envisions an industrial FDM system composed of many robots laying down the thermoplastic material in an open space. Using carbon fibre in the production process will make it possible to achieve the required strength and stiffness.
And what about production of automotive components? Just like we said, that is a now a non-issue and EDAG is already looking straight at the next stage: modules. After that the road will belong to fully 3D printed bionic cars.
