CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Paul J. Wolcott Ph.D. – Body SMT Innovation

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Agenda

1.  Additive Manufacturing in Industry

2.  Opportunities in Automotive

3.  Challenges and Needs Moving Forward

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Background: What is Additive Manufacturing (AM)?

A field of manufacturing processes that create three dimensional objects directly from digital data through

successive addition of layers of material

Additive Manufacturing, 3D printing, Rapid Prototyping, Freeform Fabrication, etc…..

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AM Technologies: Overview Standard Terminology for AM Processes (ASTM F2792-12a)

a.  Binder jetting > Liquid bonding agent selectively deposited to join powder material > Powder bed and inkjet head (PBIH), plaster-based 3D printing (PP)

b.  Directed energy deposition > Focused thermal energy fuses material by melting while depositing > Laser metal deposition (LMD)

c.  Material extrusion > Material selectively dispensed through a [heated] nozzle/orifice > Fused deposition modelling (FDM)

d.  Material jetting > Droplets of photopolymer + wax selectively deposited and UV cured > Multi-jet modeling (MJM)

e.  Powder bed fusion > Thermal energy source selectively fuses regions of powder bed > Electron beam melting (EBM), selective laser sintering (SLS), and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS)

f.  Sheet lamination > Thin sheets of material (plastic, metal) bonded together (glue, USW) > Laminated object manufacturing (LOM), ultrasonic consolidation (UC)

g.  Vat polymerization > Liquid photopolymer selectively cured by light-active polymerization > Stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP)

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Past Commercial Uses of AM

•  Stereolithography (SLA) prototypes ‒  Fit, form ‒  Limited functionality

•  Plastics ‒  Limited metals capabilities

•  Desktop printing ‒  Toys, trinkets

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Gartner Hype Cycle

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Additive Industry

•  AM industry including all AM products and services is $5.2 bn ‒  Growth of 26% from 2015

•  Patents issued on AM has more than tripled since 2010

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AM Acquisitions

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Applications of AM Technology in Production

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GE Fuel Nozzle •  Part Consolidation

‒  Combined 20 individual pieces into one print ‒  Eliminates need to weld/braze multiple pieces

•  Improved functionality ‒  Novel flow design not possible in conventional methods ‒  Improved durability over previous design ‒  25% lighter

•  30% lower cost ‒  Improved cost due to part consolidation, many fewer steps

•  Reportedly pursuing 100 k units annually by 2020 ‒  ~20 units / engine

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Airbus

•  A350 XWB program with over 2,700 AM plastic parts

•  Significant lightweighting advantages

•  Less expensive over the lifetime of the program than conventional components

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Hearing Aids

•  More than 15M 3D printed hearing aids in circulation worldwide

•  Entire industry converted to 100% AM production within 500 days ‒  Those who did not, did not survive

“The U.S. hearing aid industry converted to 100% additive manufacturing in less than 500 days, and not one company that stuck to traditional manufacturing methods survived” - Harvard Business Review

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Automotive Components Rolls Royce •  Approx. 10,000 parts on Phantom •  Includes plastic holders, center lock buttons,

sockets, etc.

BMW •  Over 500 water pumps used lifetime in racing

applications •  Vehicle custom trim plates

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Additive Automobiles

Local Motors

EDAG

Divergent3D

ORNL

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New Technology Developments

•  Carbon 3D ‒  CLIP technology up to 100x faster than stereolithography (SLA) ‒  Properties equal to or better than injection molding

•  HP ‒  Multi-jet fusion technology

•  Big Area Additive Manufacturing (Cincinnati Inc.) ‒  Large scale technology ‒  World record largest 3D printed part

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Opportunities in Automotive Industry

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Advantages of Additive Manufacturing

•  Innovative design ‒  Complexity is free ‒  Creative freedom for innovation, customization ‒  Light weighting, lattice structures, internal fluid channels ‒  Limited design for manufacturing limitations ‒  Integration of structures and functionality

•  Reduced development times ‒  Speed from design to part ‒  No tooling required, significantly improves lead times

•  Decentralized manufacturing ‒  Reduction in supply chain costs, shipping ‒  Lower lead time risk

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Innovative Design

•  Lightweighting ‒  Lattice structures ‒  Topological designs

•  Tunable stiffness

•  Fluid dynamics / conformal cooling

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Advantages in Tooling

•  Conformal cooling tools for injection molding ‒  Improved cycle times

o  Saving seconds/part in cooling can lead to significant $ savings

‒  Improved quality

•  Lower lead times

•  Ergonomic customization

Printed tools/inserts can lead to significant time/$ savings

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Design Iterations and Customization

•  No Tooling

•  Allows fast redesign

•  Custom vehicles

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Reduced Development Times

•  Design iterations without generating prototype tooling •  Test functional parts without 6+ month lead time

•  Recall mitigation

$$

Time

Costs of Change

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Decentralized Manufacturing

•  Manufacturing directly at assembly plant

•  Service parts ‒  Dealers ‒  After-market sales

•  Reduce inventory costs

•  Eliminate shipping costs

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Challenges and Needs

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Machine and Material Costs

•  Both remain high, though the trajectory is improving rapidly, especially for metal components Decreases driven by: ‒  Increased volumes ‒  Improved competition

•  Material costs a major driver for high piece costs

•  Capital investment for machines remains high

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Material Labor, Overhead, etc.

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Machine Development

•  Current machines developed for aerospace and biomedical applications ‒  Build volumes and process times too small for many automotive applications

•  Machine speeds continue to increase but require further developments for high volume applications

•  Speed leads to fewer machines required for volumes and lower costs

•  Key improvements: ‒  Faster, high number of lasers ‒  Less post-processing

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Speed of SLM

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Material Development

•  Limited available materials •  Generally focused on higher cost materials – Titanium, Nickel, etc.

•  Need ‘automotive’ grade materials – aluminum, steels

•  Technologies specifically tailored to these materials ‒  Processing parameters

•  Material characterization for automotive conditions ‒  Tensile, fatigue, corrosion, durability, etc. ‒  Current materials qualified for flight by FAA

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Traditional AM Carbon CLIP

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AM Understanding / Training

•  Plenty of knowledge designing for more conventional processes: injection molding, stamping, casting, etc. ‒  Need to fully understanding the technology

to leverage it

•  On-site training

•  University and developmental school programs

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Summary

•  Recent developments exhibit the benefits of Additive Manufacturing

•  Moving from hype to reality

•  Continued work required to fully realize automotive benefits

Paul J. Wolcott Ph.D paul.wolcott@gm.com