Carbon and Lamborghini take part production into high(er) gear
An important step in AM for automotive, with lead time reduced by 12 weeks
After beginning work together in February, Carbon and Lamborghini have expanded their partnership and will now digitally manufacture both the central and lateral dashboard air vents for the Sián FKP 37, Lamborghini’s first hybrid production car.
Earlier this year, Carbon and Lamborghini produced a new textured Fuel Cap and a clip component for an air duct for Lamborghini’s Urus SUV. This new collaboration to produce 3D printed air vents marks a significant milestone in Lamborghini’s partnership with Carbon and, more broadly, the adoption of Carbon’s Digital Manufacturing Platform to produce parts by leading automakers. The fact that this is not strictly a high-performance part (although you could argue that any part of a Lamborghini has to meet very high standards of quality) actually marks an even more important milestone for AM adoption in automotive part production.
In fact, the air-vent for the Sián FKP 37 leveraged Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology and combined it with Lamborghini’s state of the art design and craftsmanship, resulting in cutting-edge air vents that provide comfort with an adrenaline-charged feeling of acceleration and ultimately elevating the driving experience.
After experiencing the quality and efficiency of the Carbon Digital Manufacturing Platform with the Urus, Lamborghini recognized it could transform the way many of its parts are designed, engineered, and manufactured—producing better parts, while also accelerating product development. With the Sián air vents, Lamborghini reduced its part lead time by 12 weeks by moving swiftly from design to production directly on the Carbon Platform. Time-consuming and costly tooling steps involved with traditional manufacturing were eliminated completely. Additionally, Carbon EPX 82 material was selected for the air vents given Lamborghini’s high standards for all car components. EPX 82 passed tests related to Interiors Flammability, Volatile Organic Compounds, Thermal Cycling and Heat Aging.
“With the Carbon Digital Manufacturing Platform, we were able to go from an initial concept to showing the final part on a show car in only three weeks, passing through many different design iterations to get the best result. Just three months later, we were able to move into production,” said Maurizio Reggiani, Chief Technical Officer at Automobili Lamborghini.
“We wanted to give our designers and engineers the ability to produce better parts, and we can do this by leveraging Carbon DLS technology. We were also able to simplify the supply chain and reduce the time-to-market for these parts,” said Stefan Gramse, Chief Procurement Officer at Automobili Lamborghini. “Moving forward we are putting more effort and resources on using additive manufacturing technologies for the production of parts for Lamborghini vehicles, and in working with Carbon, we have found a partner that shares our vision for creating best-in-class products that push the limits of what’s possible.”
Bringing it all back down to Earth, the partnership extension with Lamborghini will likely result in no more than a few dozen pieces in the immediate future, given the very low numbers of Lamborghini produced and especially Sian models. However, the fact that Carbon technology is now becoming a more consolidated option for Lamborghini’s ultra-high requirements is a very good sign. The company has already cost-effectively produced batches of several thousand and even hundreds of thousands of parts so it appears likely that this will eventually happen for a number of larger batch automotive parts as well, as Paul di Laura, VP of Enterprise Partnerships at Carbon, had anticipated to 3dpbm in an exclusive interview over a year ago.
“Lamborghini has exacting standards for quality and performance, and we are pleased to demonstrate how the Carbon Digital Manufacturing Platform makes it possible for our customers to create parts at a speed, quality and cost not possible with other manufacturing techniques,” said DiLaura. “We couldn’t be prouder to expand our work with Lamborghini.”
Carbon’s partnership with Lamborghini is a combination of beauty, performance, and technology. Through this and other partnerships with leading global companies, Carbon is applying years of learnings from high-volume production in adjacent markets to manufacture durable, end-use parts for the automotive sector. Using the Carbon Platform and Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology, companies are now starting to realize the potential to create better designs and bring innovative parts and products to market faster than previously possible.
