Ford is 3D Printing Automotive Parts for Mass Production: The Cool Parts Show S2E1

Ford Motor Company is getting ready for scale production via additive manufacturing. A production part for a lower-quantity vehicle - a bracket for the parking brake system of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 - is now mass-produced on digital light synthesis (DLS) 3D printers from Carbon, and this is teaching lessons the company will use as additive manufacturing advances.
Comparable brackets used to be stamped rather than printed, and they were made of metal rather than plastic. The new part is lighter-weight; 3D printing allowed a design that replaces separate right- and left-hand versions with a single part; and the freedom to produce without a stamping die allowed for easy modification the design. More in this episode.
This episode and all of Season 2 brought to you by Carpenter Additive. www.carpenteradditive.com/
LEARN MORE ABOUT:
- Other parts at Ford made through additive manufacturing:
www.additivemanufacturing.med...
- Carbon’s DLS process for production 3D printing:
www.additivemanufacturing.med...
- Brackets! Examples of how AM is improving a type of part perhaps we don’t think about much:
www.additivemanufacturing.med...
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[@bencolbourn5691]

Pizza Linski is such a cool name

[@darkshadowsx5949]

I was thinking about being a manufacturing engineer.
designing additive parts like that is fun. iterating and improving these parts is fun too.

[@pluraladditivemanufacturin3975]

So much to learn here. Ellen Lee and Harold Sears from Ford lay out a great idea: practicing on thousands of parts to measure manufacturing capabilities. Skim PPAP requirements on wikipedia and the value of faster iterative cycles becomes clear. Note that Harold Sears hits on the critical knowledge needed as part quantities climb: build orientation, consistency, tolerance for part placement on the build tray.... 10% waste on a 10 or 100 piece part run may be acceptable for some projects, but quickly becomes a barrier as the quantities rise. Bonus points for Carpenter Additive tour.

[@NanetteGregory]

Great explanation on why Ford choose Carbon's technology for this part.

[@abdulaziza]

Resin parts are terrible for strength, but great for look straight from the machine, if empty voids are used they get filled with uncured resin and later change in temperature crack the part, especially hot temperature

[@thareshkumar6113]

Love you guys