Video: Car Manufacturing is Starting to Utilize 3-D Printing

Ultimaker has announced that Volkswagen Autoeuropa is using its solutions to quickly and cost effectively produce tools that aid in the manufacturing of Volkswagen cars. With the Ultimaker 3 and the Ultimaker 2+ printers, engineers and line technicians can design and print gauges, jigs and fixtures on-demand, rather than waiting on third party vendors to deliver the parts to them. This move reduced tool development time by 95 percent and saves more than 90 percent in production costs.

Manufacturing aids can now be 3-D printed overnight and tested the next morning, which speeds up the development process considerably. (Source: Ultimaker)

The manufacturing plant is based in Portugal and produces 100,000 cars per year, employing 4,000 people. They designed and printed 1,000 parts last year using the Ultimaker and saw a 100 percent return on investment within two months. Volkswagen Autoeurpoa saved $160,000 in 2016 and they estimate that the savings will increase to $200,000 in 2017 with the expanded use of the Utilmakers.

By manufacturing tools in-house, Volkswagen can skip the purchasing department. They can also develop their own new or improved ideas about tools with the 3-D printer operators. Before working with Ultimaker, it would often take weeks to process mock-ups, and manufacture the tools. With the new printers, a part can be printed overnight and ready to be tested and used in the morning. Operators can provide feedback on the new tools, and tweaks can be made where necessary. To implement a new idea using their old system, they would have had to deal with multiple departments at a third party tool distributor, and even then, only a few ideas would actually be accepted. And then it would be difficult to make adjustments to the new tools quickly. 3-D printing is cutting down the time spent on this process, while lowering costs.

With the 3-D printers, the manufacturers can have customization of parts, revisions, faster delivery and cost savings, as well as accessibility across the Enterprise. Volkswagen Autoeuropa currently has 7 Ultimakers in operation. They currently produce 93 percent of all previously externally manufactured tools in house.

To learn more about the new use of Ultimakers in car manufacturing, click here.