AUTO UNION Type C + 3D Printer In Metal
Audi’s favorite new toy isn’t the 1:2 scale model of their 1936 Auto Union Typ C grand prix car. It’s the printer that made it. Like
most car companies, Audi is constantly pushing the limits of toolmaking
and other manufacturing processes. Their latest success is part of the
3D printing revolution, but the results are more robust than typical
plastic prototypes because Audi is printing in metal.
The process
is analogous the one used by tabletop 3D printers that melt plastic
beads and extrude hot, sticky goo in layers, forming differently shaped
plastic things.
Audi’s
process uses metallic powder — either aluminum or steel — with grains
less than half the size of a human hair. The powder is melted by lasers,
and applied in layers that can produce parts as large as eight inches
cubed. That’s not yet big enough to make even a TT (which accounts for
the pint-sized grand prix car), but it can make complicated parts that
would otherwise need to be machined or cast — and, in some cases,
printing enables the production of parts that are otherwise impossible
to make. Not only does printing allow more precision for involved
geometries, the resulting parts are denser than ones formed by die
casting or hot forming. Audi sees a future in which metal printers are a
staple of series production.
But in the mean time, they built a pretty nifty little car.
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