It is reported that Volkswagen plans to produce automotive functional metal parts with 3D technology. Volkswagen officially said it will cooperate with Hewlett-Packard, GKN Powder Metallurgy to develop new 3D printing technology, under the premise of ensuring quality. Improve the production rate of parts.
The result of Volkswagen's cooperation with GKN and HP is a structured large-scale 3D printing technology that can be put into production as early as next year. This technology is made up of layers of powder and binder, then sent to sintering, and finally Forming the finished part. This method is different from the process of laser melting powder commonly used in ordinary metal 3D printing.
In the future, Volkswagen will use the HP Metal Jet printer to 'print' demanding high-performance features such as shift knobs and mirror mounts. Even print lightweight metal parts that have been certified tough safety. But many people dream of the whole Car printing, Volkswagen said that there is a plan for the time being.
What are the advantages of high-precision 3D printing?
The biggest advantage of 3D printing is the flexibility of the production process. Compared with the traditional way, it can turn various concept designs into real objects more quickly, simplifying the production process of complex molds. It is very beneficial to reduce R&D costs and shorten the time to market. , can also print on demand, reduce inventory backlog. But nowadays 3D printing technology is still not mature (there is almost no way for the metal parts of the car), only through unremitting technical improvement, can it be truly widely used in the automobile manufacturing industry Scale adoption.