AMS 2024

Desktop Metal Receives ~$8M Order from German Car Maker for Metal Binder Jet 3D Printers

Electronics
Metal AM Markets
AMR Military

Share this Article

Metal mass production 3D printing leader Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) just announced that it has received a pretty massive order, worth $7.9 million, for its binder jetting additive manufacturing systems. The customer is an unnamed major German automobile manufacturer, which plans to use Desktop Metal’s printers to mass produce metal automotive powertrain components at scale. The 3D printing unicorn‘s metal 3D printers are already being used by other car makers, such as Ford, which just proves that the automotive market is full of viable AM applications.

“We are proud to be working with a number of major, global automotive OEMs to expand their adoption of additive manufacturing for the series production of end-use car components. This milestone order is evidence of the performance and economics that make our binder jetting solutions the most advanced in the world and a testament to our teams who have been working tirelessly to help make the vision of mass production via additive manufacturing a reality,” Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal, stated in a press release.

Prototype piston head, optimized with generative design

Powertrain components are the ones that generate a vehicle’s power and deliver it to the road surface, so they’re pretty important. The engine, drive shafts, transmission, and final drive are all powertrain components, though sometimes the term only refers to the engine and transmission, including other components only if they’re critical to the transmission.

Desktop Metal has plenty of experience 3D printing parts for the automotive industry, including powertrain components like piston heads for reciprocating engines, and connecting rods, which are used in combustion engines to transmit power from the piston head to the crankshaft. The company’s automotive customers include the aforementioned Ford, in addition to Renault, the Continental Automotive Group, Turner Motorsports, and BMW.

Connecting rod for a combustion engine

While the use of 3D printing is not yet widespread in this industry, many more automobile manufacturers are starting to recognize its benefits; supposedly, Desktop Metal customer Ford is also using ExOne’s binder jet technology to make car components, and it’s said that Volkswagen may be producing car parts with HP’s binder jet 3D printing. The car manufacturers taking advantage of AM used to mainly rely on laser powder bed fusion or direct metal laser sintering, which can be pretty pricey, require a lot of post-processing, and can only use a limited amount of materials. Binder jetting seems to be the AM technology of choice these days for automotive components.

“Taken together, cost, materials, and speed challenges have resulted in additive manufacturing making only minor inroads into auto manufacturing, and most parts continue to be produced by traditional methods, like casting, forging, machining and stamping,” Desktop Metal wrote in its Manufacturing the Cars of Tomorrow eBook.

“The printing technology developed by Desktop Metal is poised to solve those problems and more, and make it possible for car makers to use additive manufacturing more widely than ever before.”

Desktop Metal Production System P-50

While the specific 3D printer this new automotive customer will be using hasn’t been specified yet, Desktop Metal’s Production System, with the company’s Single Pass Jetting (SPJ) technology, is the one most typically used for high-volume production, due to its speed, simpler post-processing, and price comparable to casting, forging, and machining methods.

Share this Article


Recent News

Will Formlabs Merge with Markforged? — Dream 3D Printing Mergers and Acquisitions

Velo3D Is the First Metal 3D Printer OEM with the Highest-Level DoD Cybersecurity Compliance



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

BAE Systems Taps AML3D to 3D Print Metal Frigate Prototype

BAE Systems Maritime Australia (BAESMA), a division of the UK’s BAE Systems, has given a contract to Australian metal additive manufacturing (AM) original equipment manufacturer (OEM) AML3D, to produce and...

Reshaping Global Supply Chains: The UK’s First Advanced Manufacturing Plan

The day before the Biden administration announced around 30 broad-sweeping economic actions planned by the White House for 2024 and beyond — all surrounding the establishment of a new Council...

$138M to Support Ursa Major’s 3D Printed Rocket Engines

Earlier this year, TechCrunch revealed that Ursa Major Technologies, the Colorado-based startup specializing in using additive manufacturing (AM) for modular rocket engines, had taken in $100 million in its Series...

$1M to Drive Metal 3D Printing Adoption in ASTRO America Project with GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Honeywell

The Applied Science & Technology Research Organization of America (ASTRO America) has partnered with Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, and GE on a project intended to ease adoption of metal additive...