Picture the scene: the Scottish highlands, a man in a sharp suit striding through an old mansion, an Aston Martin DB5 exploding into the night sky.
It was with some horror that car fans watched James Bond’s carefully stored DB5 destroyed on the silver screen. What cinema goers may not have realised, however, was that this was no ordinary Aston Martin: it was actually a 3D-printed version of the classic model, around one-third the size of the original.
3D printing – or additive manufacturing – is nothing new to the automotive industry: OEMs have been using it for well over 20 years to develop prototype parts during the design phase. But with rapidly falling costs, and the wider availability of 3D printers, this technology is only now starting to turn heads. In fact, Citigroup analyst Kenneth Wong recently estimated that the technology will grow so quickly, by 2018, the market for 3D printing and scanning products could triple. In 2011, the industry was valued at US$1.7bn.
The technique has been used in Ford’s Rapid Technology Centre throughout the complete development process – from initial research to working prototype – since 1992 in Europe. “At the time, competitors came to Ford as well, to look at the technology and the machine. We were one of the pioneers, using this technology for development work,” says Sandro Piroddi, Supervisor for Rapid Prototyping. “From then on, we have had state of the art machinery, making about 77,000 parts a year.”
To date, 3D printing has been used at Ford in the development of cylinder heads, brake rotors and rear axles for test vehicles; and during the initial stages of Escape EcoBoost 4 cylinder engines, and the F-150 3.5L EcoBoost.
Time is money
Rather than machining an item from a material, 3D printers ‘print’ products by building up layers of, for example, plastic. Open source software is used to create and tweak the design to be produced.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, at Ford, 3D printing has proved to be hugely beneficial in cutting production times. A cylinder head used in the EcoBoost engine, for instance…
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