Credit: www.3dprintingmedia.network
Automotive giant Volkswagen – like other German automotive brands – is rapidly becoming a large adopter of 3D printing – and especially metal 3D printing – technologies not just for prototypes and tools but also for direct production of final car parts and components. The Group – which includes other high profile AM adopter brands such as Porsche, Bugatti and Lamborghini – is now consolidating many of its AM activities within the new 3D printing center in the Autostadt, at the Wolfsburg factory site. What exactly is being 3D printed there? While we did not yet have the opportunity to visit the center in person, Volkswagen recently provided a fairly accurate report from inside the facility. This is what goes on at the new Volkswagen 3D printing center and turning Wolfsburg into the beating heart of automotive metal additive manufacturing.
Metal jetting car parts
One of the key activities is the result of the recent partnership signed with HP and GKN for use of HP’s new metal jet binder jetting technology. Through this deal, the Volkswagen brand’s Toolmaking unit at the Wolfsburg site will soon be able to go into actual 3D series production.
Expansion of the facility from 460 to 3,100 square meters means a new working space where toolmakers, developers, designers and researchers can work together in an interdisciplinary context. HP Metal Jet systems’ modular, expandable structure will eliminate many manual steps, enabling Volkswagen Toolmaking to make its production processes more efficient and cost-effective. On the other hand, the process will also allow a larger number of 3D materials to be produced more rapidly. At present, Wolfsburg’s Toolmaking unit is still researching and building prototypes and tools. But toolmaking specialists in Wolfsburg are also working on lightweight construction concepts that stabilize the steel and therefore also the components. Plans also call for 3D printing technology to be used in series production at the site.
Racing into production
When developing the I.D. R Pikes Peak electric racing car, Volkswagen engineers used a model for which a large number of individual parts had been produced in 3D printing. AM will play a key role in the future, and this can already be seen in the construction of the race car I.D. R Pikes Peak electric. In development work for wind tunnel tests, Volkswagen engineers used a model that had a variety of individual components made by 3D printing. These parts have also been used in test drives and even in finished race cars – in the form of small components such as cable mounts and switches.
Sky’s the limit
Volkswagen is not the only brand in the Group to use metallic 3D printing. An Audi team at a 3D printing center in Ingolstadt is also studying ways to further advance the technology for both its brand and the Group. Spare-part production also plays a major role at the site. Original replacement parts that are rarely needed, such as water connecting pipes for the W12 engine, have been produced here with 3D printing using processes such as laser melting. And the moon rover, the Audi lunar quattro, was also made in part with 3D printed materials. Its wheels, for example, are made of aluminum components produced at Audi’s metal 3D printing facilities in Ingolstadt.
Past and future collide
Porsche uses the 3D printing process to manufacture individual parts for classic cars such as the Porsche 959
The Porsche brand is also using 3D printers to make exceedingly uncommon components that are only needed in small quantities. All parts made by 3D printing processes have to meet the highest technical and optical requirements for maximum fidelity to the original. One example is the release lever for the clutch in the Porsche 959, which is no longer available. This gray cast-iron part has to meet very high-quality requirements and is seldom needed due to the low production number of the super sports car itself. The world’s largest 3D printed titanium pressure functional component ever produced on one of the most powerful brake test benches on the market! This is what it looks like when Bugatti prepares its first printed titanium brake caliper for series production.
Accelerating brakes
Bugatti is another member of the Volkswagen Group that is instrumental in advancing innovative future-oriented technologies. The company developed the world’s first brake caliper made by additive manufacturing, namely an 8-piston monobloc model. The French super sports car brand is also the first series producer to use titanium and at the same time produced the largest brake caliper in the automotive industry. Bugatti’s newly developed 3D printed brake caliper uses an alloy that appears primarily in aeronautics and aviation applications and features especially high strength and performance properties. Compared to previous aluminum components, which are installed in cars like the Bugatti Chiron, the printed titanium brake caliper could save considerable weight and would also be more robust.
The Volkswagen Group plans to continue its efforts in 3D printing technology in the future. The goal is to establish 3D printing in series production.
