It seems that the discussion on whether 3D printing will be a viable solution for car parts manufacturing can safely be consigned to the past. 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 succeeded in making it a non-issue as it presented a fully 3D printed car concept at the Geneva Motor Show.
As late as last year, 3D printing in the automotive industry was still considered by many as a ‘potentially’ viable solution for production applications. 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 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 studied the potential of many different additive manufacturing technologies. Fused deposition modelling proved to have the most potential, as it theoretically makes it possible for components of any size to be produced, with no predetermined space requirements. EDAG envisions an industrial FDM system composed of many robots laying down the thermoplastic material in an open space. After that the road will belong to fully 3D printed bionic cars.
