The BMW Group has strengthened its dedication to additive manufacturing (AM) because it appears in the direction of the long run and the implementation of AM throughout all phases of its car life cycle.
In response to a new Q&A with BMW Group’s Head of Additive Manufacturing Timo Göbel, who got here on to steer its Additive Manufacturing Campus (AMC) in Oberschleißheim final yr, BMW Group is claimed to be persevering with its funding technique in AM and is “actively shaping the transition of additive manufacturing into a completely built-in and extensively established manufacturing know-how – each technologically and organisationally.”
3D printing has been a big a part of the German automaker’s toolkit for a while. It was the recipient of EOS’s first Stereos 400 system all the way in which again in 1990. It is now used to construct elements in sequence manufacturing automobiles throughout all of its manufacturers, beginning with polymer brackets for the Rolls‑Royce Phantom in 2012 and steel elements for the BMW i8 Roadster in 2017. Since opening in 2020, greater than 1.6 million elements have been manufactured on the AMC, with greater than 100,000 elements produced at car crops worldwide yearly. It’s also actively embedding AM experience and coaching throughout the organisation to “create the inspiration for sustainable scaling all through the whole firm.”
Göbel mentioned the corporate is “clearly on observe towards the broad industrialization of additive manufacturing.” Talking about its adoption throughout the BMW manufacturing community, he shared that AM is changing into an “more and more essential instrument for quick, versatile, and technically superior improvement processes”, whereas newer applied sciences like Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), which BMW started exploring in 2024, are enabling the manufacturing of bigger elements in greater portions.
Göbel offered an extra replace on BMWs integration of WAAM, which is at present present process switch into sequence manufacturing for the manufacturing of huge‑format elements. Car testing is claimed to have been underway since 2025, and sequence manufacturing of the primary elements is predicted to start in 2027.
Additive manufacturing programs from Farsoon, HP and TRUMPF (now ATLIX) inside BMW Group’s AMC. (BMW Group)
Göbel additionally spoke about how automated, digitally networked course of chains, open-material programs and open interfaces are a “key pillar” of BMW’s scaling technique, and mentioned future know-how portfolio investments will likely be constructed round these necessities.
Talking about how BMW scouts new applied sciences, Göbel defined that the corporate has already built-in subprocesses from the Industrialization and Digitalization of Additive Manufacturing (IDAM) venture (a venture consortium funded by the German Federal Ministry of Schooling and Analysis in 2019 to ascertain automated steel 3D printing manufacturing strains), and is now wanting in the direction of integrating an ‘fully new technology of steel 3D printers’. In polymers, in the meantime, Göbel mentioned programs that “reliably meet the excessive efficiency requirements” will more and more be deployed sooner or later, together with totally series-ready programs, and custom-designed gear.