Volkswagen Hits Key Milestone in Journey to Mass Production with HP Metal Jet

Last year Volkswagen selected HP Metal Jet, the world’s most advanced 3D printing technology for the high volume manufacturing of production-grade metal parts, as the foundation for its strategy to industrialize additive manufacturing with a multi-year design and production roadmap. With a production run of more than 10,000 high quality parts produced by HP and GKN Powder Metallurgy in just a few weeks to support the visionary ID.3 electric vehicle launch event, Volkswagen reached a key milestone in the first stage of its three-phase strategic roadmap to functional production.

“Our vision to industrialize additive manufacturing is quickly becoming a reality with HP Metal Jet, it is a game changer for the automotive industry,” said Dr. Martin Goede, Head of Technology Planning and Development, Volkswagen. “The pace of innovation by HP and advanced capabiltiies of the technology have exceeded our expectations. We are meeting our milestones and are actively identifying and developing functional parts for production.”

Dr. Goede expanded on the important milestone, and the work Volkswagen and HP are doing together on the path to mass production, in this video.

The production of the ID.3 models represents the successful execution of the first step of Volkswagen’s strategic roadmap for Metal Jet production beginning with mass customization and cosmetic parts. In subsequent phases Volkswagen intends to integrate Metal Jet printed structural parts into the next generation of vehicles as quickly as possible and are targeting a continuous increase inpart size and technical requirements – with the future goal of soccer-size parts of 50.000 to 100.000 per year. Examples of higher performance functional parts with significant structural requirements e.g. gearshift knobs and mirror mounts. As new platforms such as electric vehicles enter mass production, HP Metal Jet is expected to be leveraged for additional applications such as the lightweighting of fully safety-certified metal parts.

“A digital transformation in the auto industry is underway and Volkswagen is leading the way with strategic vision and bold action,” said Tim Weber, Global Head of Metals, HP 3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing. “We are committed to delivering the capabilities our customers need to accelerate the design and production of high quality final parts with breakthrough economics. Together with Volkswagen and partners like GKN we are standing up the factories of the future.”

HP is partnering with GKN Powder Metallurgy, the world’s leading provider of metal parts, to deploy HP Metal Jet factories to produce functional metal parts for auto and industrial leaders. The collaboration between Volkswagen, HP and GKN Powder Metallurgy has resulted in the ability to move quickly to produce parts at scale. To support the recent unveil of the new Volkswagen ID.3, the first fully electric production car with a CO2-neutral footprint, the company leveraged the rapid expansion of Metal Jet capacity at the GKN Factories in Bad Langensalza and Radevormwald and at HP in Barcelona to produce more than 10,000 ID.3 models for the vehicle‘s massive marketing campaign. Volkswagen intends to distribute the models toVolkswagen employees and car dealers around the world.

“What better way to showcase the innovation of Volkswagen than to use our own technologies in the marketing campaign for the premiere ID.3 launch,” said Dr. Goede. “We are extremely pleased with the technical features and the speed, quality and low-cost per part that HP Metal Jet has provided.  The surface quality and feature resolution enabled great attention to detail and made it possible to add a special touch to this important company milestone.”

Metal Jet in Action

HP will be showcasing HP Metal Jet, at several global industy events in November, including November 11-14, 2019, at FABTECH in Chicago. Dr. Tim Weber will be speaking on a leadership panel “The impact of disruptive technology and the future of manufacturing,” on Wednesday, November 13 at 12:30 pm. To see Metal Jet in action and the latest Metal Jet parts from Volkswagen and other customers across industries, visit Booth A3-638. 

To learn more about HP Metal Jet as well as HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing innovations and explore hundreds of breakthrough applications driving the digital industrial revolution, visit Hall 12.1 Booth D21 at formnext 2019 in Frankfurt. 

Complete technical, pricing, and availability information on HP’s new Metal Jet technology and Metal Jet Production Service can be found at HP.com/go/3Dmetals. BRW More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com/go/3Dprinting.