Ford rolls out autonomous robot-operated 3D printers in automobile manufacturing

Multinational automotive producer Ford has begun utilizing an autonomous robotic inside its manufacturing line to 3D print end-use elements for its autos. 

Leveraging an in-house-developed interface, Ford has managed to get the KUKA-built bot to ‘converse the identical language’ as its different techniques, and function them with out human interplay. Thus far, the agency’s patent-pending method has been deployed to 3D print customized elements for the Mustang Shelby GT500 sports activities automotive, nevertheless it might but yield effectivity financial savings throughout its manufacturing workflow. 

“This new course of has the power to vary the best way we use robotics in our manufacturing services,” stated Jason Ryska, Ford’s Director of World Manufacturing Know-how Improvement. “Not solely does it allow Ford to scale its 3D printer operations, it extends into different facets of our manufacturing processes – this expertise will enable us to simplify gear and be much more versatile on the meeting line.”

3D printing at Ford’s innovation hub 

Since buying an SLA 3 system again within the late Nineteen Eighties, Ford has persistently sought to combine 3D printing into totally different facets of its automobile manufacturing course of. As revealed in a current interview with AMUG keynote speaker Ellen Lee, the agency makes use of the expertise, not simply inside fluid movement visualization and wind tunnel testing, however within the creation of jigs, fixtures and end-use elements for its vehicles. 

A lot of Ford’s work round 3D printing takes place at its Superior Manufacturing Middle (AMC), a facility that now homes SLA, FDM and SLS techniques, amongst a spread of different superior equipment. Whereas the AMC staff spends quite a lot of time verifying the feasibility of printed elements or assessing how applied sciences like 3D printing may be higher utilized, their work has yielded a lot of current breakthroughs. 

Simply final month, Ford launched CAD recordsdata that allow its prospects to 3D print pickup truck equipment akin to cup holders or telephone mounts, and thru working with HP final yr, it developed a method of recycling 3D printing waste into F-250 elements. 

Going additional again, the corporate additionally partnered with DLS specialist Carbon in 2015, as a method of initially expediting its prototyping workflow, however with the longer-term aim of utilizing the expertise for half manufacturing. With the information that it has developed an automatic Carbon 3D printing workflow, it now seems that Ford has handed this milestone, and set its sights on driving effectivity from the method. 

Interfacing with autonomous robots    

Like most firms, Ford makes use of techniques at its manufacturing services which were developed individually from each other, therefore they don’t run the identical interface and may’t normally talk backwards and forwards. Nevertheless, the agency has now shifted this paradigm, by growing a novel utility interface program that permits techniques of various makes to ship fixed suggestions to one another. 

When utilized to the robotic arm on wheels housed at Ford’s AMC, which it has nicknamed ‘Javier,’ the software program basically permits it to ‘discuss to’ the Carbon 3D printers there. Consequently, the bot is now capable of inform when the middle’s additive manufactured elements can be completed, in addition to once they’re prepared for pick-up, working autonomously all night time lengthy with out requiring any human enter in any respect.

Though Ford admits that its operators are nonetheless liable for importing designs to the printer and sustaining equipment, it says its method does unlock larger half throughputs and reduces associated prices. The agency additionally claims to have used Javier’s suggestions to cut back the margins of error inside its processes, permitting it to “obtain nice accuracy” in manufacturing regardless of the bot not having the imaginative and prescient techniques to ‘see.’

At current, the corporate is using its setup to make low-volume, customized elements akin to a brake line bracket for the Efficiency Package deal-equipped model of its Mustang Shelby GT500. Transferring forwards although, Ford believes its program may very well be utilized to make different robots in its manufacturing line extra environment friendly as nicely, and it has filed a number of patents, not simply on its interface, however the positioning of its KUKA bot. 

The aggressive world of automotive AM 

As a result of highly-competitive nature of the automotive trade, we could not know the complete extent to which many main producers make the most of 3D printing, however from time to time they do present us with a glimpse of the best way it’s used behind the scenes. 

Again in June 2021, it was revealed that Volkswagen has adopted binder jetting at its most important plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. Working as a part of a undertaking that reportedly made it the primary automotive maker to deploy the expertise inside its manufacturing course of, the agency has partnered with HP and Siemens with the purpose of driving larger effectivity and half throughput there. 

Equally, fellow car-manufacturing multinational Groupe Renault has introduced plans to combine 3D printing capabilities into its new sustainable automotive ‘Re-Manufacturing facility.’ Particularly, the corporate says that the advanced, which is ready to give attention to lowering waste by recycling and retrofitting autos, will function a spare half additive manufacturing service. 

At Audi’s Steel 3D Printing Centre in Ingolstadt, in the meantime, its engineers have begun ramping up their deployment of EOS applied sciences to 3D print sizzling kind tooling. In doing so, the agency says it’s now capable of produce twelve totally different segments of 4 sizzling forming instruments on the facility, that are later used to assemble automotive fashions just like the A4 saloon.

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Featured picture reveals Ford’s ‘Javier’ autonomous 3D printing robotic. Picture by way of Ford.