General Motors Turns To 3D Printing

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General Motors is not the only carmaker suffering from manufacturing inefficiency and significant contributions to runaway pollution. But it is reported to have a plan that tackles both.

3D Printing Making Inroads

3D printing is hot in the media, but what about actual manufacturing? The automotive industry is slowly moving toward 3D printing.

An important thing to remember is that 3D printers that cost thousands of dollars years ago are now available for as low as $200. I can now print 3D plastic components needed for collector cars and can avoid the hundreds of dollars that would have otherwise gone into buying them.

While we are far from large-scale 3D printing, stories show how 3D printed cars are becoming more and more a reality for the commercial production of electric vehicles, including EVs promised by big carmakers.

GM Starts To Tackle Some Serious Stuff

GM (as you might have guessed from the headline and intro paragraphs) is specifically looking into 3D printing lightweight parts for its EVs. Of course, EVs need to be as light as possible for the best energy efficiency.

For starters, GM and Autodesk are working on 3D-printed components, such as a stainless steel seat bracket. By reducing the original 8 parts down to one, it can also easily solidify it. The new 3D-printed products is 40% lighter and 20% stronger.

Yes, 3D printing has been used for decades to create prototypes. But the technology is now mature enough to be used commercially, according to GM’s director of design and manufacturing, Kevin Quinn.

GM Moves Forward, But How Far?

Overall, GM has made great changes within its operations and in its culture in recent years. 3D printing is a necessary evolution, but hardly one that deserves much mention in 2018, when most carmakers are expected to have already tested assembly line speed and quality throughput with commercial 3D printers.

A far more interesting project would be to open-source such projects and let millions of people help companies seriously perfect and mature technologies and products. But even for the manufacturing innovation discussed above, is GM really serious — beyond exaggerated PR abuse — about mass-scale 3D printing? And if it is, what electric vehicle models will benefit?