E-MOBILITY
ALLIED WITH ADDITIVE
Xavier Llobera explains how the automotive industry is using additive manufacturing to increase performance and save costs
T
he automotive industry is rapidly becoming more “electrified”, as OEMs keep announcing new electric
vehicles (EV), hybrid and pure, every month. Nearly 400 new EV models will be launched in the next eight years, and it is estimated that by 2035—in just over 10 years—50% to 80% of all sales will be electric vehicles. Significantly, some OEMs plan to reconfigure their product lines to produce only electric vehicles, as announced by Volvo, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Stellantis, and many others. Overall, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates cumulative sales of electric light-duty vehicles (LDV) of 55-72 million by 2025. Consequently, automotive OEMs
are under pressure to accelerate their product development cycles to keep up with the competition, including start-ups that are extremely agile. In this context, additive manufacturing can be an extraordinary ally, as it can streamline all phases of the product life cycle, from prototyping to bridge production and spare parts. But it’s not all about speed.
Additive manufacturing can also bring significant performance enhancements and cost savings.
PERFORMANCE Thanks to the design freedom enabled with automotive 3D printing applications —as opposed to the design constraints of injection moulding—more complex geometrics can be manufactured, resulting in
more efficient cooling or heating sub- systems can be enabled. Computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) software can determine the optimal geometry that will maximise mass flow and minimise pressure drop, which, in most cases will result in complex, organic shapes that cannot be fabricated with injection moulding. In critical sub-systems, such as battery cooling, optimising efficiency will increase the life and performance of batteries.
COST SAVINGS THROUGH IMPROVED PERFORMANCE The use of infilled lattices, only possible with additive manufacturing, allows easier heat or cold ventilation inside seats for passengers’ comfort. Thus, one compressor will be enough to heat or cool both seats, as opposed to installing two. Consequently, not only will this save the cost of one compressor, but it will also decrease energy consumption from the vehicle’s battery and, hence, increase its driving range.
3D printing enables the production of lattice structures
COST SAVINGS THROUGH BRIDGE PRODUCTION Traditionally injection moulding has been a very cost-effective manufacturing process when large volumes of identical plastic parts need to be fabricated. However, there is a dependency on tooling (i.e., moulds) that can jeopardise the tight production cycles explained above. For example, GM recently shared how additive manufacturing enabled the urgent production of 60,000 window seals for its new 2022 SUV platform. A late design change, when production was about
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