BMW to invest €10m in additive manufacturing

Carmaker BMW is set to invest €10m in a new Additive Manufacturing Campus near Munich, as it seeks to become a leader in the field. Udo Hänle, head of production integration at the company, said it would allow BMW to test new technologies and continue to develop its “pioneering role” in the use of additive manufacturing for vehicle production.
The center will be home to up to 80 staff, and more than 30 different systems for producing metals and plastics, and is due to open in early 2019. It will work as a pilot plant, primarily producing parts for prototypes and custom vehicles.
The company has already integrated additive manufacturing and 3D printing into its production line. “With the BMW i8 Roadster, the BMW Group became the first carmaker to 3D print a production run of several thousand metal parts,” explained Jens Ertel, head of the company’s Additive Manufacturing Centre.
One example is a fixture in the soft-top cover for the Roadster, made of aluminum alloy. Printing meant the item, which was inspired by forms found in nature, could be lighter, but significantly more rigid than the normal injection-molded equivalent.