Israeli 3D printing developer Stratasys Inc. (Nasdaq: SSYS) today announced an agreement with German carmaker Audi. The company's Plastics 3D Printing Center in Ingolstadt will use Stratasys's full-color, multi-material 3D printer - the Stratasys J750 - to innovate its design process and accelerate design verification. Audi expects to reduce prototyping lead times by up to 50% in the production of tail light covers.
Before a new vehicle goes into production, the Audi Pre-Series Center in Ingolstadt builds physical models and prototypes for the brand to evaluate new designs and concepts thoroughly. This requires allocation of most parts of the vehicle in an early stage of product development - everything from wheel covers and door handles to radiator grills. Traditional methods, such as molding and milling, are commonly used to create and replicate new designs. However, the use of plastics 3D printing has become an integral part of the automotive design process at the Audi Pre-Series Center, enabling the team to overcome limitations of conventional processes and accelerate design verification.
In the case of tail light covers, the team traditionally used milling or molding to produce individual parts. The main challenge with these production techniques are the multi-colored covers of the tail light housing. These individual color parts must be assembled, as they cannot be produced in one-piece. This time-intensive process increases lead times for design verification and subsequently delays time-to-market.
Streamlining the process, the Audi Plastics 3D Printing Center will use Stratasys’ J750 full-color, multi-material 3D printing. This will enable production of entirely transparent, multi-colored tail light covers in a single print, eliminating the need for its previous multi-step process. With over 500,000 color combinations available, the team can 3D print transparent parts in multiple colors and textures that meet the stringent requirements of the Audi design approval process.
“Design is one of the most important buying decisions for Audi customers, therefore it’s crucial we adhere to supreme quality standards during the design and concept phase of vehicle development,” explains Dr. Tim Spiering, Head of the Audi Plastics 3D Printing Center. “As a result, we need prototypes to have exact part geometries, no distortion and extremely high quality, as well as true-to-part color and transparency. The Stratasys J750 3D Printer will offer us a significant advantage, as it allows us to print the exact textures and colors our design defines. This is essential for getting design concepts approved for production. In terms of 3D printing transparent parts, I have not seen a comparable technology that meets our standards.”
Stratasys president EMEA Andy Middleton said, “Audi is a prime example of how our unique full color, multi-material 3D printing technology can combine several design processes into one, rapidly accelerating development cycles. If you extend the time-savings achieved by Audi on the tail lights to other parts of the vehicle, the overall impact on time-to-market can be huge. We’re excited to see how Audi continues to leverage our FDM and PolyJet technologies into new application areas to further increase efficiencies across its development process.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 7, 2018
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