Over the past decade, BMW has produced one million 3D printed parts. This year, the BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Centre is expected to produce 200,000 3D printed parts, a 42% increase from last year.
Recently, the BMW Group put its 1 millionth 3D printed component, the window guide, into mass production for the BMW i8 Roadster. The rail was successfully developed in just five days, and it was soon put into mass production at the Leipzig plant. The component will be installed in the door of a BMW i8 sports car, allowing the windows to run smoothly and made using HP's Multi Jet Fusion technology. This technology was jointly developed by HP and BMW Group and is very high speed. It is now the first time it is used for mass production of vehicles. It can produce more than 100 window guides in 24 hours.
The window guide is the second 3D printed part of the BMW i8 sports car. The first 3D printed part is a fixture for the soft top attachment and is also produced by the Additive Manufacturing Center in Munich. The fixture is made of aluminum alloy, and the metal parts are usually lighter than the commonly used injection molded plastic parts, but they are harder, and this year they won the Altair Enlighten award in the module category. Lightweight innovations in the component field.
At the same time, customers are paying more and more attention to the personalization of vehicles and components. Through the MINI Yours Customised product initiative, BMW customers can design their own components such as selected indicator inlays and dashboard trims. They can also create designs in online stores and then 3D parts according to specifications. print.
For the BMW Group, additive manufacturing will be a key production method in the future. The company first started using plastic and metal processes in 2010, initially primarily for the production of smaller components, such as pump pulleys for DTM vehicles. Subsequently, in 2012, BMW introduced more applications, including various laser-sintered components for the production of Rolls-Royce Phantom. Since last year, Rolls-Royce Dawn's optical fiber guide fixtures have also been made by 3D printing. Currently, there are 10 3D printed parts in Rolls-Royce brand products.