Today 3DGBIRE and Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) have announced their partnership to enable the continued adoption of 3D Printing. BAC began their additive manufacturing journey with the launch of the Mono R – a higherperformance, lighter and more advanced new generation of the iconic Mono. Using the combined resources of Application Engineers from 3DGBIRE and Ultimaker, BAC were able to prototype and produce over 40 3D printed parts.
By 3D printing parts using Ultimaker S5 FFF 3D Printers, BAC has been able to reduce the design-to-manufacture timeframes of complex geometrical components and bring production in house. The versatility of Ultimaker’s Open Source Material Alliance allowed 3DGBIRE to facilitate BAC with DSM industrial grade high-performance polymers to produce bespoke production parts for each vehicle, at a reduced cost.
In the ultra competitive automotive trade every advantage that can be obtained is essential. Whilst realising economies of scale is one objective, shortening the development process and going through the iteration cycle with limited cost penalties can be equally beneficial. Additive manufacturing techniques allow ideas to be tested and communicated more efficiently and enable users to innovate with less restrictions.
Whether it’s functional prototypes to validate designs and do fit testing or tweaking and customising to add value for customers, 3D printing enables you to move with agility and with cost profiles to suit your budgets. Ensuring that the design is right prior to investing in tooling can have a huge impact of profitability and can drastically reduce time to market.
As many of the race teams involved in motorsport are credited with developing techniques that become part of mass produced vehicles it’s obvious to draw a link between the pursuit of improved performance and innovation. More and more automotive companies are using additive manufacturing to stay ahead of the competition and drive more efficiency into their processes.
The automotive sector moves so quickly that it can be troublesome to not be at the vanguard of technology. By working with many leading organisations our expert team can help make sure you don’t get left behind.
By using 3D printed tools, jigs, and fixtures, Volkswagen Autoeuropa reduces cycle time operation, labour, and the need for reworking, while improving tool ergonomics. Furthermore, they achieve this at a tenth of the usual cost. The company estimates that they are on track to save €250,000 by the end of 2017.
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In the custom car business, cost depends on many factors. From designing and producing a custom piece, which may require different combinations of raw materials and time, to the labour involved in installing and finishing that part, the variables make it difficult to measure. The company estimates they save as much as $500 per part using 3D printing methods instead of purchasing machine-made, aftermarket solutions.
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New designs now bypass all traditional stages of ordering and delivery, saving money and time in the process. The reliability and consistency of the print quality means there’s very little waste. Greater flexibility enables the team to innovate more freely and this boosts company profits.
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Having the quick access to 3D printing technology gave the team the ability to create custom-made parts for the motorbike, which would not be possible without huge costs. Having the power to make unlimited changes to the design of parts saved huge amounts of time if external sources were used they would be huge waits for lead time to produce the final product. We could design, print and test within a week – multiple times.
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Their pursuit of flexible and faster manufacturing of parts led to the collaboration with Innofil3D. Our objective was to create a material which meets the requirements for high-speed motor racing and is easy to use in a desktop 3D-printer. With Innofil3D ABS Fusion⁺ we provided an engineering filament for Ten Kate Racing which meets these criteria.
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