Formula Racing Car battery cooling system HP
A battery cooling system manufactured by a Formula Racing Car customer of HP's using its Multi Jet Fusion technology.
Sat in the driver’s seat of a black Renault Captur in the Nottingham Belfry Hotel car park, under the glaring sun, I had just come out of an Additive International Conference presentation delivered by a General Motors employee who stressed the automotive industry still has a lot to do to reach volume production with additive manufacturing (AM). On the other end of the phone line was Ramon Pastor, VP of 3D Printing, HP, in the equally sweltering setting of his Barcelona office. I thought I’d get his thoughts on the matter, from the perspective of a 3D printing vendor that’s all about volume manufacturing.
How big a target market is the automotive sector for HP’s 3D printing division?
Ramon Pastor (RP): "I've just seen the numbers of market share on the latest results. We actually believe we are getting, right now, the number one position in shipments of industrial 3D printers, so we are super pleased on how the business is evolving and the adoption that we will see from a lot of the markets and industrial customers, especially in the segment that we are talking about."
What automotive components do you think HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology is well suited to?
RP: "Looking specifically at automotive, we are looking at different applications. The most obvious one is prototyping, it was the traditional area where 3D was happening and of course we are doing this, but we are actually having quite a bit of success in a couple of specific applications. One is racing cars. In motor racing we have a number of customers. I've been very surprised at the number of companies that are doing racing cars, not only on the cars but also on bikes, and apart from prototyping and developing spare parts, we sell a bunch of units to do the final parts, the ones that go into the cars that race, from manifolds to air fill systems, engine covers, battery pulling systems. You name it. We are doing a lot of parts for a lot in this segment. That's one segment that is working very, very well.
"In the main automotive market, we are working with the big companies, some of the cases we are working to qualify the system - it takes a number of months to qualify a manufacturing system for applications - but in some of them we already have parts in the cars, especially on the interior. If you think about interior customised parts, the glove box, seat belt covers, this sort of application. Cars is obviously very important, trucks is the other important thing. This is actually even more interesting for 3D given the lower volumes and the high level of SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) and customisation that this requires. Commercial trucks is a big one.
"And then, there is a third segment which is electrical vehicles (EV). Electrical vehicles is an especially important application that 3D printing can go into because there is a number of things. First, one of the current limitations of current cars is basically the number of parts that go under the hood because of the big temperatures that they are exposed to. EV actually changes components so the number of parts we can address with the current technology is much, much higher. There is another one that is super interesting. The performance of an EV vehicle, the autonomy range, the acceleration, speed, a lot of the performance has to do really with a critical system which is the battery system, so using 3D is super relevant to improve the performance of the battery in battery cooling; doing geometries that are much, much, much better; doing geometries that are lightweight; that are high up again on the performance; part combination; design freedom. There is a lot of potential on EV and actually [when] we have to go and convince the manufacturer we have designed our own battery cooling manifold to share with these companies the potential of 3D and when they see, they say ‘wow’."
How many customers do you have in the automotive markets?
RP: "In motor racing, I would say that we have maybe 10, 15 customers easily. On the main automotive I would say that any major company that you can think in automotive we are working with them."
What is HP bringing to automotive that is new?
RP: "For me, it's giving two things. First, and for me the most important one, is the cost. The cost to produce a part. At the end, the contrition of 3D today, we are limiting this to only personalised or one-off parts, it's interesting but not fascinating. Really what we are after is actually to get to SKUs that represent higher and higher volume, so economics is key. One of the key advantages of Multi Jet Fusion is economics. Breakeven point versus injection moulding and this is one of the key differentiation points versus any other additive manufacturing technique.
"The second I would say is performance. And performance in different areas. One of the main advantages of Multi Jet Fusion is its air tightness and water tightness. For any pneumatic or any fluid vessel application, it will have a huge advantage over other technologies. And previously when you talk about EV, but also when you talk about some of the things and application or systems under the hood, they are super important."
Is HP and its partners working on materials specific to automotive applications?
RP: "In some of the cases we work with the automotive customer together with a specific material partner so it's a three-way discussion that we are having to develop materials that are designed for a specific application. If it's an under the hood [component] for a gasoline type of motor, basically what they need is high temperature defection material, that's a clear one. There's other applications where you need a very high impact resistance because of the crash tests, and actually there are certain areas of the parts that you need to have a higher impact [resistance] than others because they are more exposed if there is actually collision. That's another example of specific materials that we have in mind, to have more absorption to this impact and in general there is some parts that need more stiffness, for instance, some glass beads, glass fibres, there's other fillers that help us to tweak some properties, but the two main ones are impact and shock absorption properties, the other is higher temperature defection properties.
When will these kind of materials be available?
RP: "2019 is actually the year that we will expand significantly our material development. It's a gradual process. Next year we will introduce a number of very interesting materials to the automotive industry, some of them will [for] certain applications or certain companies, so working with them together with the [material] partner again. The ones that are generally available during 2019 you will see are a very interesting portfolio of materials."
What needs to happen for AM to reach volume production in automotive?
RP: "I think that there's a number of trigger points but the main trigger point is to have factories that are certified, quality controls and basically they have a manufacturing mindset with a process mindset. They get quality end to end, to convince an industry to move the technology. It's not so much a matter to go to General Motors and convince them that this is the right technology. The thing is you need to present a contract manufacturer that will be a partner for them, that has all the processes, that they can convince that this process is under control. We have a role to play but it is us partnering with factories that have the credibility, that have the name, that have the processes, that can demonstrate that they can produce time after time after time a part that meets the requirement of the customer. And this is what we need to do, and we are working with the some of the largest manufacturers of the world to get to this stream so the adoption is accelerated."
What can you tell us about the lateral actuator, pneumatic grip and robotic arm components manufactured by IAM 3D Hub with MJF which were recently previewed on the HP YouTube channel?
RP: "The first thing you need to understand about IAM 3D Hub, this hub is not a service bureau, it is not a factory, it is basically an application centre. They help small and medium businesses to develop an application to help them choose the right manufacturing technology, the right material, the right post processing, the right specifications and when this is designed, they might do a little bit of a pilot, but then the company takes on manufacturing. In this case with the robotic arms, they work with a company, it's confidential, but it is a well-known robotic OEM to develop this type of use cases. And basically, they went to this hub asking, ‘our customers, they buy my robots and they need very specific applications to attach to the end of the arm, this actuator, this gripper, they're usually very specific to the application of the robot’. What they did was design it for Multi Jet Fusion, and they actually developed this. This is a very nice example, especially the pneumatic grip or the lateral actuator, of how good Multi Jet Fusion is for air and fluid tightness. You cannot put this pressure of fluids into almost any other 3D technology and have this level of performance. For us it's a good demonstrator of this application."
