In the wave of Industry 4.0, 3D printing continues to change the manufacturing landscape. As an emerging manufacturing technology in the automotive industry, 3D printing has injected new vitality, especially in the aspects of rapid prototype trial production, functional prototype verification, tooling jigs& fixtures. It also assists with the production and application of spare parts for customized, discontinued or small batch vehicles.
3D printing automotive parts
Under the trend of electrification and smart manufacturing for automobiles, along with the desire and product differential consumer upgrades allow, customers are attaching more importance to interior and exterior accessories. This leads to an inevitable trend of diversification, personalization, and customization to meet varied customer demands. With rich experience in the automotive industry, INTAMSYS has widely applied 3D printing technology to automotive interior and exterior accessories, such as customized bumpers, steering wheel test pieces, racing car parts, tail logo fixtures, and more.
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Most recently, INTAMSYS has partnered with KEXCELLED to provide their 3D printing solutions for the Automotive Division of SIKA in China; this project has become a significant milestones in the automotive industry.
China Automotive Division, SIKA
Compared with traditional injection molding methods, INTAMSYS 3D printing has helped clients in the automotive industry reduce time and cost by 80% -90% for their prototype development, giving a boost to rapid iterations and significant changes needed to be made with tight timelines.
Automobile models printed using INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 41O
As an automotive component supplier capable of providing a complete set of adhesive, shock absorption, sealing, and structural enhancement solutions, SIKA helps OEM clients create vehicles which are lighter, stronger, safer, quieter, and more eco-friendly. During the manufacturing and verification process of the prototype, the components 3D printed by the INTAMSYS’ FUNMAT PRO 410 were bonded with SIKA EVA eco-friendly plastic foam materials. EVA foam materials filled the gaps between the printed components and the bodywork, forming a sturdy structure that not only ensured the required stiffness of the vehicle body, but also provided shockproofing, sound insulation, and noise reduction.
3D-printed components bonded with EVA material
In the selection of 3D printing materials, KEXCELLED PAHT K7 has stood out thanks to its characteristics of high rigidity, high performance, and ease of use. The material has a fracture elongation of 21-25%, with good toughness and excellent impact strength; The elastic modulus ranges from 4600 to 4800Mpa, demonstrating high rigidity and remarkable load-bearing capacity. In addition, it has low creep performance, is not prone to deformation, and maintains good accuracy. Thanks to these characteristics, the 3D-printed parts using KEXCELLED PAHT K7 continuously meet many of the various requirements for automotive components. Looking past the raw print off the build tray, the sound adhesion property of the material allows it to easily form composite structures and components for specific functions with other materials, This enables many of those important attributes mentioned earlier such as sound insulation, noise reduction, and being shockproof.
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Printed components are bonded to EVA and installed on the vehicle body
It is evident that the KEXCELLED PAHT K7 material, with its outstanding properties, has extremely high requirements for the printing ability of the equipment, which needs to address the water absorption effect of nylon while meeting the printing temperature requirements. As an industrial-grade dual nozzle high-temperature 3D printing equipment, the INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410 features a format printing size of 305 * 305 * 406mm, equipped with wire sealing and drying technology and multi-material coverage ability. It prints PA engineering plastics with extremely high accuracy and quality, producing detailed and high-quality prints which accurately reproduce the design model of automotive components.
INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410
Based on the optimization and strict testing of the KEXCELLED PAHT K7 material process parameters, INTAMSYS has maximized its performance advantages, helping SIKA to quickly and repeatedly verify their design while also changing plans of the BIW cavity noise isolation and structural enhancement components, thus greatly reducing the risk and cost of verifying and changing molds. Most importantly, the 3D-printed components are directly used for prototype verification, shortening both the time for component design modification and the entire vehicle development cycle.
SIKA body in white
The different applications in the automotive industry have also put forward high requirements for materials. INTAMSYS provides 3D printing solutions covering different materials, including many with high-performance attributes used to build fixed devices, gaskets, busbars and other components in racing cars, composite materials used for turbofan engine components, and engineering materials used for air conditioning filter cover plates and steering wheel trial parts. INTAMSYS collaborates closely with customers in the automotive industry chain such as Porsche, Tesla, BMW and Toyota to empower the development of electrification and smart manufacturing in the automotive industry.
INTAMSYS, as a global leading high-tech company providing 3D printing solutions with high-performance materials and industrial direct additive manufacturing solutions, has always dedicated itself to promoting additive manufacturing as an innovative method for industrial creation. In the future, INTAMSYS looks forward to more in-depth partnerships with leading enterprises to jointly explore the potential of 3D printing in a wider range of application scenarios.
Introduction to partners in this case
About SIKA:
SIKA Group was established in 1910 and is headquartered in Switzerland. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIKA Group in China, SIKA China offers solutions in concrete, waterproofing, sealing and bonding, roofing, flooring and coatings, repair and reinforcement, and industrial innovation.
About KEXCELLED:
KEXCELLED is committed to providing users with cost-effective FDM/FFF related materials and accessories, with its business covering consumer, professional, and industrial levels. It is known as one of the most comprehensive, high-quality, and innovative brands in the industry.
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INTAMSYS is a world-leading high-tech company that provides high-performance 3D printing materials, direct additive manufacturing solutions and software. Co-founded by a team of engineers with years of precision equipment development and high-performance material research, the company is headquartered in Shanghai. Currently, it has established a complete marketing and after-sales service system covering the whole world, with 2 European and American marketing and technical service centers, respectively located in Germany and in the United States. INTAMSYS focuses on aerospace, automotive, electronic manufacturing, consumer products, medical, scientific research and other industries, providing complete additive manufacturing solutions, from functional test prototyping, tooling fixture manufacturing to customized mass production. For further information, contact us at info@intamsys.com.
