汽车制造商General Motors（GM）增加了17StratasysFDM 3D printers to its already extensive fleet,citing “speed, weight reduction, and cost efficiency” as key advantages of the technology.
The news precedes an update from Stratasys on the companies most recent financial performance that is due tomorrow.
罗恩·道尔, Director of Additive Manufacturing at GM, states: “With the pace of change in modern industry accelerating and business uncertainty increasing, 3D printing technology is helping us meet these challenges and become more nimble as a company. Additive manufacturing is consistently providing us more rapid and efficient product development, tooling and assembly aids, with even more benefits to come.”
GM和AM
通用汽车从1989年开始使用该技术进行低级原型制造时开始与增材制造合作。几十年来，该公司现在在全球许多生产设施中安装了3D打印机。此后，它还培训了700多名员工使用3D打印技术。
通用汽车的方法表明了更广泛的趋势2020年4月的SME媒体研究noting a quarter of U.S. manufacturers had plans to change or add to their supply chains in some way. Of eleven technology choices, 3D printing (along with robotics) was the top choice. The results indicate that manufacturing professionals may really be starting to see additive’s potential in everything from prototypes to end-use components and tooling.
Stratasys Americas总裁Rich Garrity说：“通用汽车正在对3D印刷进行明智的投资，以成功实现这种不确定性和破坏的新常态。结果，通用汽车的制造业线更适合适应性和便宜，而且开发得更快，更好的产品。它们是汽车行业增材制造未来的明确模型。”
COVID challenges
GM’s move to tooling was really put to the test in April when the company signed a contract with the美国卫生与公共服务部在9月之前生产和交付30,000个重症监护剂。该公司首先对原始制造商的工具固定装置进行了反向工程零件数据。第二天，通用汽车把它的Stratasys FDM农场工作，3D打印制造呼吸机所需的工具。
The automotive manufacturer claims that material innovation and machine repeatability have made a huge difference in the success of its ongoing project. It has employed Nylon12 Carbon Fiber (35%wt) for some of its fixtures, a composite with a remarkably high strength-to-weight ratio. As a result, heavy-duty parts that would usually require metal can now be 3D printed with a polymer filament at a fraction of the time and cost. This, of course, is aided greatly by the dimensional precision and consistency of production-grade printers like theStratasys F900。
遵循通用汽车的哲学，金属专家Tecalum Industrialattributedmajor time and cost savings今年早些时候，其新的3D打印工具。通过将3D打印整合到日常操作中，Tecalum能够在内部制造许多夹具和固定装置，从而消除了对任何第三方服务的需求。
Elsewhere, metal additive manufacturing service providerAmaero与不愿透露姓名的汽车制造商建立合作伙伴关系jointly develop 3D printed tooling。具体而言，Amaero将为两个铝制铸件模具组件创建钢插入物，以减少制造缺陷的风险。
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Featured image shows GM additive manufacturing team members working at the still-under-construction Additive Innovation Center. Photo via GM.
