Automotive Additive Manufacturing

The use of 3D printing for automotive prototyping is among the very first commercial uses of AM. As the aerospace and medical segments began evolving the technology toward production, however, automotive additive manufacturing initially remained largely confined to that first use until recently.

This is due primarily to the lower part cost requirements of the larger automotive industry. As AM technologies are now increasingly able to provide larger parts, larger part batches and faster production capabilities (through both machine evolutions and increased process automation), along with more readily available end-use materials, the current period and the next two years will be of fundamental importance for AM adoption by the automotive segment.

On 3D Printing Media Network we continuously track and analyze all these latest trends for AM adoption within the global automotive industry.

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies, already imbedded into the core of the auto industry, have now entered into the new and exciting areas of automobile supply and manufacturing chains. As the first major consumer product industry to do so, the implications and the potential for this paradigm shift are extremely significant for both AM and the global manufacturing industry as a whole. The implications extend to all industries linked to manufacturing, such as material production, and product distribution.

The prospects, given the sheer scale of the global auto market, are incredibly important for the development of 3D printing technology and are therefore quite exciting.