Ford and the additive manufacturing - small materials create a big difference

Ford and the additive manufacturing - small materials create a big difference
The automotive industry is one of the first industries to truly realize the benefits of 3D printing. In the past decade, advanced technological developments have revolutionized the development, design, manufacturing and distribution of automotive manufacturers – safer and lighter products, new designs, lower costs and shorter developments. With the manufacturing process.

A study by Allied Market Research shows that 3D printing adds value to existing products and features in every aspect, making it indispensable in the automotive industry. The success story of 3D printing began with the prototype of the car. Today, the additive manufacturing process has entered other areas of the automotive industry and is gradually showing its potential.

3D printing application examples in Ford

Ford uses Ultimaker's desktop-grade 3D printers to design and manufacture assembly tools such as fixtures, fixtures and gauges. In general, these tools are complex in design, cost-effective, fast-moving and can be produced directly on site.

At the pilot plant in Cologne, Ford uses 3D printing technology to optimize the production process for specific product fixtures, tools and stencils during automotive design and development.

3D printing technology has been used in the Ford pilot plant in Cologne, Germany. The plant has a complete set of small production equipment, and the design of the new model at this factory is basically mature. In the development of automotive models, engineers need to customize a large number of suitable production tools, which are often designed for specific tasks and models. Only the Ford Focus series requires more than 50 different assembly tools, which were originally developed at the pilot plant and then in-situ 3D printing at all European plants.

Purchasing these tools through external manufacturers takes a lot of time, is costly, and slows development down. To optimize the workflow, Ford's additive manufacturing team decided to integrate Ultimaker's desktop-grade 3D printer into the workflow. "Ford chose Ultimaker because the quality and reliability of the printed results and the cost can be optimally proportioned," said Ford Additive Manufacturing Research Engineer Lars Bognar.

Diversified consumables make many tools

The advantage of desktop 3D printing is in materials. A large number of consumables and a wide range of material properties provide the right solution for practical applications. With only one additive manufacturing process, production equipment can meet the most diverse application and operating environment requirements. The range of consumables and their material properties is almost endless: strength, elasticity, heat resistance, strength, resilience, and durability are all within the expected range of variation. For 3D printing technology, it is essential to print in a quality and quantity without losing material properties.

A key factor in the use of desktop-grade 3D printers is the open consumable system, which can be individually applied to consumables with different material properties from different material manufacturers for their respective applications and manufacturing. Because Ultimaker's open consumables system can use a variety of materials from manufacturers to 3D printing, traditionally manufactured tools will be replaced by lightweight and durable plastic tools.

This feature of 3D printers is particularly prominent in production equipment, tools and assembly assistance, demonstrating the disruptive potential of the additive manufacturing process and has brought about exemplary changes. Especially in terms of assembly tools, applications are not only very diverse in form, but also widely applicable.

Print quality and effect

The perfect coordination of hardware, software and materials is critical to delivering high quality prints. To meet the automotive industry's growing demand for industrial consumables, Ultimaker is working with leading material manufacturers to bring high-quality engineering plastics and composites for industrial 3D printing to market with Ultimaker printers.

Ultimaker's Ultimaker Material Alliance Program, established in April 2018, is designed to meet the growing demand for industrial grade 3D printed materials. In just one year, many leading material manufacturers include DSM, BASF, DuPont, Owens Corning, Arkema, Jabil (Jabil), Lehmann & Voss & Co., etc., actively use Ultimaker's Print Profile Assistant to bring a variety of high-performance FFF 3D printing materials to the professional market more quickly. As of April 2019, more than 80 companies have jointly developed material profiles for FFF 3D printing for the Ultimaker Materials Alliance Program.

In addition, Ultimaker's software for material manufacturers includes extensive knowledge from R&D and the company's printed materials, enabling material manufacturers to develop and maintain material profiles that allow users to truly build on desktop-grade 3D printers in open consumable systems. Use these materials with ease. The print profile is pre-configured and available for use on the freely accessible Ultimaker Cura software. No need to manually enter print parameters, users can automatically print by accessing pre-configured settings. Even the most demanding plastics can be industrially integrated through Ultimaker's 3D printer fusion.

Explore more application possibilities

The benefits of desktop-level 3D printing are obvious: due to the small number of workpieces, the manufacturing costs are relatively low; they are lighter than traditional methods and can be adapted to additional needs more quickly. Each tool saves €1,000 for printing assembly aids such as fixtures and fixtures compared to conventional tooling costs. From the original 10-week external contract, including design and manufacturing, to even complex assembly fixtures, it can be completed in 10 days at the latest.

Ford uses desktop-grade 3D printers in all European factories. Cologne's development team provides tooling designs for other production plants that can be printed directly on site within 24 hours. In addition, assembly aids are 70% lighter than conventional tools. In Ford alone, there are more than 50 different additive tools for the Ford Focus series. Although additive manufacturing is currently only a production aid at Ford, its application to other fields is still being explored.