It’s clear outside right now, which is a good sign that we might get a nice view of the Quadrantid meteor shower tonight. While not as famous as other meteor showers such as the Perseids or the Leonids, the Quadrantids are still an intense meteor shower that results from the Earth’s passage through the asteroid 2003 EH1. Tiny fragments of the asteroid will enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up harmlessly, so don’t worry – you won’t come outside to find your yard or car pitted with asteroid chunks. But for those of you who think it’d be really cool to have space rock embedded in your car, BMW has something for you.
The new BMW Individual M850i Night Sky has actual meteorites, which are chunks of rock that don’t burn up in the atmosphere and actually land on Earth, incorporated into its cabin. The center console’s trim plate, the start/stop button, the selector lever and the Touch Controller for the iDrive system are all decorated with the meteoric rock, and inlays made from the material are also incorporated into the door sill finishers, along with an illuminated model badge.
“Expanding on the use of meteoritic material for the controls inside the sports car, the design of many other interior and exterior elements takes its cues from a structure that only occurs in natural form on extra-terrestrial objects: the distinctive Widmanstätten surface pattern of meteorites,” BMW states. “The strictly geometric structure, with its straight lines, has the appearance of ice crystals and becomes visible when certain types of iron meteorite are polished or brought into contact with acidic compounds.”
The structure forms as a result of the metal alloy cooling in an extremely slow process that cannot be reproduced on Earth. The design of many elements on the BMW Individual M850i Night Sky is inspired by the structure, however, including the hand-stitched headliner and the center console’s trim finishers. It has also been milled into the brake discs and 3D printed in several other components, including the exterior mirror caps, the front splitters for the side air intakes at the front of the car, the center mesh plate and the surrounds for the Air Breathers on the front side panels.
Also 3D printed are the innovative bionic-design brakes. When creating the brake calipers, BMW was able to reduce their mass to the minimum required to meet technical requirements, meaning that only the material needed for the brakes to work is used. The resulting construction mimics that of bones, with an optimum balance between component rigidity and weight, and can only be produced using additive manufacturing. The technology also allowed BMW to incorporate the brake fluid channels into the structure of the brake calipers.
The interior leather trim comes in a tri-color design with LED-illuminated star constellations on the center console, for an extra astronomical effect. The Widmanstätten structure is also repeated in the stitching pattern for the seat center sections.
“The exterior paintwork of the BMW Individual M850i Night Sky has a special paint finish which combines two color tones to achieve a high-impact effect. Black non-metallic was used as the base colour for the body,” BMW adds. “A second coat in San Marino Blue metallic was then painted over it in a graduated effect from the bottom edge of the body up to the top of the wheel arches. Finally, three layers of clear coat with varying pigment particle sizes were applied to give the paint finish a remarkable sense of depth.”
All this combines to create a car that is a dream for space enthusiasts. BMW introduced the car today to coincide with the meteor shower, which is a nice promotional touch. While humans may eventually colonize the moon and Mars, this may be the closest any of us end up to being in a spaceship.
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In April 2018, automotive and architecture dominated on the 3D printing applications front. This month, 3D Printing Industry also became an official media partner of AMUG, one of the most exclusive groups in the industry – and we featured big releases from the likes of Stratasys, BMW, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Markforged. 3D Printing […]
BMW Group has been using 3D printing for more than 25 years, and in the last decade has produced a million parts using the technology. This year alone, the company expects that it will 3D print more than 200,000 components, a 42 percent increase over last year. And BMW Group is just getting started. The company is aggressively pursuing additive manufacturing, intent on staying ahead in an automotive industry that is rapidly embracing the technology.
“The use of components made by additive manufacturing in series production of vehicles is increasing particularly strongly at the moment,” said Dr. Jens Ertel, Director of the BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center. “We are following the development and application of advanced these manufacturing methods very closely indeed, partly through longstanding cooperations with leading manufacturers in the field. At the same time, we are engaging in targeted technology scouting and evaluating innovative production systems.”
BMW Group’s millionth 3D printed component came recently in the form of a 3D printed window guide rail for the BMW i8 Roadster. It took only five days to develop and was quickly integrated into series production. The guide rail, which is located in the door of the Roadster, allows the window to operate smoothly. It was manufactured using HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology, which is now being used in the series production of automobiles for the first time. The technology is capable of producing up to 100 window guide rails in 24 hours. Additionally, BMW uses EOS Selective Laser Sintering and various other technologies for metal and polymers.
The window guide rail isn’t the only 3D printed component in the BMW i8 Roadster – it wasn’t even the first, actually. The first was the fixture for the soft top attachment, which was 3D printed from aluminum alloy. It is both lighter and stiffer than the traditional injection molded plastic component used in its place. This year, the component won an Altair Enlighten Award in the Modules category.
BMW Group began using both plastic and metal back in 2010 for the production of a smaller series of components such as the water pump pulley for DTM vehicles. In 2012, the company began using laser sintering for several components for the Rolls-Royce Phantom. While many automotive companies are using 3D printing in their manufacturing processes, a lot of them are mainly using the technology for tooling purposes. BMW Group has been one of the pioneers in using 3D printing for actual functional car parts.
The company has big plans for 3D printing in the future. Recently it began offering several customization options for the BMW MINI, many of them 3D printed. Last year BMW Group began using 3D printing for the fiber optic guides in the Rolls-Royce Dawn; Rolls-Royce currently has 10 3D printed components in its product line.
It was just earlier this year that BMW Group built a new dedicated Additive Manufacturing Campus, which likely at least partially accounts for the drastic increase in 3D printed parts over the last year. The two 3D printed components in the BMW i8 Roadster were designed and produced at the Additive Manufacturing Center, among many others. BMW Group has long been a leader in 3D printing in the automotive industry, and it clearly intends to hold on to that designation.
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3D Printing Industry took a morning run through what is set to be a record breaking event. Here are some of our first impressions of Formnext 2018. Our team will be in Frankfurt all week to bring you detailed coverage of the 4th edition of what has become the main event on a crowded additive […]
While many automotive manufacturers have been using 3D printing in their design and manufacturing processes, BMW has been a leader in the field, using the technology for over 25 years. The company has used 3D printing for everything from roof racks to more advanced concepts. There are plenty of reasons for BMW and other automotive manufacturers to turn to 3D printing, like time and cost savings and the ability to produce lightweight, efficient, complex parts, but there are also some benefits of 3D printing that are simply fun, like customization.
BMW’s new MINI can be customized for users in a multitude of different ways, such as 3D printed patterns, pictures, shapes, and letters on the dashboard and glove box. You can even request an LED light that projects your name on the street when you get out of the car, according to BMW. The company is the first to take automotive personalization to this level, and it’s doing so with the help of Twikit, a Belgian company whose software platform emphasizes 3D printed customization possibilities.
BMW MINI customers can design their own customized cars online, and the digital files are sent to the production facility, where they are manufactured using 3D printing, laser cutting and other advanced technologies.
“Twikit technology was a bull’s eye right from the start,” said Twikit Co-Founder Gijs Hoppenbrouwers. “Since its foundation, we have been working with major players in various industries. Innovative players in the medical industry can now use our technology to make prostheses and orthoses on a large scale quickly. Customization for a mass audience is also perfectly possible for jewellery, furniture, windows and doors, electronics, … Companies discover that they can personalize products with modern, high-tech production techniques such as 3D printing and laser cutting, tailored to each individual customer.”
Twikit was founded in 2012 by Hoppenbrouwers, Martijn Joris and George Lieben. The company now has 33 employees and is becoming active worldwide, particularly in Europe and the United States. Besides working with BMW, Twikit also offers its personalized production services for prosthetics and orthotics, jewelry, electronics, windows and doors, and more. The company prides itself on being able to help companies smoothly and seamlessly bring together multiple digital production techniques such as 3D printing, CNC machining and laser cutting.
Will automotive customization catch on? We’ll have to wait and see. Will people value their own personal touches so much that they’ll be willing to pay €119 to have LED lights announce their presence any time they leave their car? Most people will likely still be swayed more by things like advanced safety features and seat warmers, but some certainly will be attracted to such customization offerings, and Hoppenbrouwers believes that many people will – that the future will be personalized.
“More and more products resemble each other, and not only in the automotive sector,” he said. “Allowing customers to personalize products is a way to stand out from the competition. The possibilities are endless. We reconcile production on a large scale with the desire of people to still have a unique product.”
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We’re starting with a bit of business news in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, then a story about metal 3D printing, and then moving along with examples of some of the amazing and innovative things people have been making with this technology. Sigma Labs has issued a letter to shareholders about some company changes, and a YouTube video introduces some new hard tool steels for 3D printing. WASP is carrying on with a major project by its Crane construction 3D printer, and a University of Minnesota professors talks about 3D printing electronics directly on skin. BMW Motorrad created 3D printed motorcycle components, and a Wisconsin sign company is using 3D printing for its products. Finally, Wrights Robotics made a full-sized, 3D printed, talking robot from a little 1980s movie called Short Circuit, and a low poly artist made some neat 3D printed chain mail.
Sigma Labs Says Goodbye to Mark Cola
Mark Cola
This past Friday, September 14th, Sigma Labs, Inc., which provides quality assurance software under the PrintRite3D brand, announced that its President, Co-Founder, and CTO Mark Cola would be retiring next month. After the news had time to settle over the weekend, the company announced the release of a letter to its shareholders from CEO and Chairman John Rice. In the letter, Rice paid tribute to everything Cola had done for the company over the years, and also assured shareholders “that the succession taking place is smooth and secure,” noting that Cola’s internal management responsibilities will be covered by Sigma’s Vice President of Engineering Darren Beckett, while Dr. Martin Piltch will take over his role on the company’s outside team of technology consultants.
“We thank Mark as founder and a leader of Sigma Labs, for creating and driving a vision of advancing the Additive Manufacturing Industry’s ‘good’ 3D manufacturing technology to become a ‘great’ high-quality manufacturing technology assured by Sigma’s IPQA,” the letter reads. “We shareholders can thank Mark for building and leading the multi-discipline technology team that is commercializing our robust data-rich analytical and interactive software – hardware tools that promise to add real value to an industry that needs such a tool. Yes, Mark now surely has the right to step back. Thank you and well done, Mark Cola!”
Here at 3DPrint.com we’ve met with Mark and have been very impressed with his deep 3D Printing knowledge and his vision on 3D printing for manufacturing and know he’ll be sorely missed at Sigma Labs.
Hard Tool Steels for SLM 3D Printing
Formetrix Metals, a brand new company I’d not heard of before today, recently posted its first video about its use of BLDRmetal steel alloys for laser powder bed fusion 3D printing. The 3D printable hard tool steel was used to make industrial dies for rolling bolt threads, after the dies made with CNC machining had failed.
After designing the dies, new BLDRmetal tool steel was used to 3D print prototypes. Once the surface finish was complete on the prototype dies, they were able to achieve high toughness and a high case hardness of up to 74 HRC.
WASP Crane Construction 3D Printing
WASP (World’s Advanced Saving Project) is well-known for its large-scale construction 3D printers, and for the last two years has been working to develop a new one, called the Crane or “the infinity 3D printer.” Evolved from the BigDelta 12M, the Crane is a modular 3D printing system with different configurations to choose from. Next month in Italy, WASP plans to present the Crane to the public in Massa Lombarda, which is where the village of Shamballa is being 3D printed.
On October 6th and 7th, a program will be held surrounding the introduction of both the WASP Crane 3D printer and the Gaia Module, a 3D printed earth house. According to WASP, Gaia is “the first module in soil ever realized with the 3d print- technology.” For more information on the event, visit the WASP website. You can see the new Crane 3D printer in action below:
3D Printing Electronics on Skin
While augmenting humans with electronics that can monitor our vitals, enhance our senses, and provide us with real-time information may sound like just an episode out of new science fiction series Glimpse, from Futurism Studios and DUST, the idea of advanced wearable electronics is not so far-fetched. Researchers like Michael McAlpine, a 3D printed electronics expert and mechanical engineering professor at the University of Minnesota, are working to improve upon existing technologies to make this fantasy a reality. This spring, McAlpine published a study that demonstrated how to 3D print electronics directly onto skin with an inexpensive, self-made 3D printer and ink made from silver flakes. Recently, Futurism interviewed McAlpine about his research, and his thoughts on the future of 3D printable electronics.
“All of these technologies we’re developing will lead to the post-computer era. You’re basically going from 2D to 3D [microchips to integrated circutry], which is essentially what biology is. So, that’s where the merger of electronics and biology is going to happen. Any privacy or ethical issues that spring from that aren’t going to be much different from the ones that we have with current electronics,” McAlpine said.
3D Printed Motorcycle Components
The motorcycle brand of German automotive company BMW, called BMW Motorrad, recently developed a new motorcycle that’s full of 3D printed components and parts. This is not surprising, considering the parent company’s love for and use of 3D printing for both its regular and concept automobiles – BMW has been using 3D printing to build its cars for nearly 28 years.
3D printing can achieve parts with complex geometries, which is why it’s a perfect technology for the automotive industry. BMW Motorrad’s special concept motorcycle, called the S1000RR, demonstrates how the company can build new components using rapid prototyping technologies, as it is made of many 3D printed parts, such as a swingarm and an aluminum chassis. Take a look for yourself in the video below:
3D Printing Signs: Beneficial or Not?
Adam Brown in the shop at Sign Effectz.
Four years ago, a sign making company called Fastsigns decided to adopt 3D printing in three of its major markets – Chicago, Milwaukee, and San Diego. Fastsigns isn’t the only company to use 3D printing to make signage – a Milwaukee business called Sign Effectz, which was first founded in the company president’s garage in 1996 and now resides in a 17,000-square-foot facility, decided to explore 3D printing a few years ago, because it could open new ways of customizing signs and make it simpler and less expensive to produce small batches of custom products. But, workers in skilled trades may not appreciate the technology quite as much.
“Your fabricators on the floor now turn into (computer-aided design) modelers. I did. I love it. I came from busting my knuckles and dropping stuff on my toes and wasting material to problem solve and figure out how to build something… to getting to the 3D CAD modeling world where you can do all of that stuff in a virtual world and make sure 1,000 pieces all match and align and run it through animation to see if it works,” said Adam Brown, the President of Sign Effectz, before noting the potential downside of the technology.
“I wonder if you’ll be able to maintain the level of interest and passion in 3D CAD modeling because there’s little pain associated with it all of the sudden. It’s just a mental math problem and you hit print.”
In my opinion, products like custom signage are one of the many applications for which 3D printing is perfect. Using 3D design and CAD software to create signs is still a creative way to build something, even if you’re not manufacturing every bit of the sign by hand.
Full-Size 3D Printed Johnny 5 Robot
If you’re a fan of 80s movies, then you surely know of Short Circuit, starring such well-known actors of the decade like Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy. With the tagline “Life is not a malfunction,” the movie tells the story of Number 5, one of a group of experimental military robots. When the robot is struck by lightning and electrocuted, he suddenly gains self-awareness and intelligence, and flees the laboratory, as he is afraid of being reprogrammed. He is later rechristened as Johnny 5.
Wrights Robotics recently completed its own life-size, 3D printed version of the Johnny 5 robot, and published a YouTube video showing its audio, neck motor, and lip light tests. Just like the real Johnny 5, this 3D printed robot moves, lights up, and talks, even uttering the movie phrase “Don’t disassemble Number 5!”
3D Printed Chain Mail
Do you know what’s cooler than designing and 3D printing your own chainmail? Playing with it! pic.twitter.com/s7k3jfzVSE
If you’re a frequent visitor to Renaissance festivals, then you’ve no doubt seen plenty of chain mail in your day. But Agustin Flowalistik, a low poly 3D printing artist based in Madrid and the Fablab manager of Tecnolab, decided to create his own chain mail – of the 3D printed variety, of course. If you want to make your own, Flowalistik has made the files available for download at Cults3D, Thingiverse, and MyMiniFactory.
“The chainmail size is 195x195mm. A 60x60mm sample is available to test and find the right settings before printing the big chainmail. Print the model with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0% infill,” Flowalistik wrote in the Thingiverse description for the 3D printable chainmail.
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Self-driving 3D printed vehicles, beer-pouring robots, robots 3D printing, whirlyball playing robots – ok I made that last one up but automation – together with additive manufacturing – is clearly a dominant theme at IMTS 2018. 3D printing and automation Automation is self-evidently a technology that does not stand in isolation – there must be […]
BMW has been using 3D printing for more than 25 years, so the automotive manufacturer has built up a high level of expertise over the decades. Recently, the company has leveraged 3D printing to create some interesting concept cars, but BMW uses 3D printing for more than just creative concepts – it’s putting the technology to work in real-world applications. In fact, BMW is leading the way in the use of 3D printing for mass production in the automotive industry by creating the first metal 3D printed part to be successfully produced for a road car.
The part is a roof bracket for the 2018 BMW i8 Roadster, and it had been in the works for 10 years, until 3D printing advanced to the point at which it could begin producing the part in mass quantities, though relatively small ones. The bracket makes the soft top of the automobile quickly raise and lower and fold and unfold in a zigzag configuration. It wasn’t an easy part to design. It needed to lift, push and pull the weight of the roof, and its design was necessarily complex, making it impossible to cast.
BMW’s designers and engineers used topology optimization software to input specifications like the space they had available and the weight of the load they needed to move, and the software generated a load path, which is a design that distributes the load to minimize the amount of material required in the part. Frequently, the load path is too complicated to be translated into a physical object, even through 3D printing. Complex designs require additional supports, which take up additional space and add extra steps to the production process, making it too lengthy and costly.
The BMW part, which was designed by Maximilian Meixlsperger, Head of Metal Additive Manufacturing at the company, overcame these challenges.
“What BMW did is get this done without support,” said Richard Yen, Altair Senior Vice President for Global Automotive and Industry. “Now they can print one batch at a time for mass production, They can print more than 600 of these brackets in one batch.”
Yen was one of the judges at the recent Altair Enlighten Awards, which honor advancements in lightweighting technology. BMW’s 3D printed roof bracket earned a lot of attention at the awards ceremony for its innovative design, which is 44% lighter than the roof bracket conventionally manufactured for the previous Roadster model.
“When the judges looked at this part, we said, ‘this is the tip of the iceberg for manufacturing,’” said Yen.
BMW was not the biggest winner of the evening – that was GM, which took top awards for reducing the weight of its 2019 Chevy Silverado by 9%, 450 lbs. lighter than the 2018 model of the vehicle. The company achieved this through thinner and stronger new steels, mysterious new assembly processes, and computer simulation. While GM may have taken the top awards, however, BMW got plenty of attention for its roof bracket, which heralds a new era of mass production through metal additive manufacturing.
Lightweighting is obviously a major goal for the entire automotive industry, as lighter-weight vehicles use less fuel and are thus more efficient in cost as well as more eco-friendly. Additive manufacturing is being used by many in the industry to deliver more lightweight parts, and although BMW’s roof bracket is a small part of a much larger machine, its impact on the product as a whole is a big one.
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Also 3D printed are the innovative bionic-design brakes. When creating the brake calipers, BMW was able to reduce their mass to the minimum required to meet technical requirements, meaning that only the material needed for the brakes to work is used. The resulting construction mimics that of bones, with an optimum balance between component rigidity and weight, and can only be produced using additive manufacturing. The technology also allowed BMW to incorporate the brake fluid channels into the structure of the brake calipers.
