LPFT Straightener

In the highly competitive auto industry, speed to market, high strength to weight ratios, fuel efficiency are some of the few goals that constantly drive engineers and designers. New high-strength steels, along with composites and adhesives, are helping to reduce weight and increase strength in modern vehicles. Additive Manufacturing using metal alloys, has found interesting applications in tooling, jigs and fixtures, and design prototypes allowing companies to iterate rapidly and validate designs of components and subsystems. While metal Additive Manufacturing of co components at the production scale of automotive may be challenging, there are certainly emerging applications in the low volume, higher end of the industry including Formula 1 and military vehicles.

Additive Manufacturing allows optimizing the maximum strength with minimum weight and material (Topology Optimization) owing to the potential to handle complex geometries. "Monolithizing" sub-components or child parts into a monolith assembly reduces production time, improves functional performance. Typical applications of Metal AM in Automotive are weight optimized manifolds, turbine housings that form part of the current turbo powertrain ERS systems, water-wheel pumps , aluminum axle pivots. A leading name in industry has developed rocker arms and camshaft bearing caps using Metal Additive Manufacturing for its next generation truck engines.

Engineering design, and therefore production of components in the industrial sector, is primarily decided by the technical capabilities of conventional manufacturing techniques that revolve around forming, joining, shaping, and so forth. Conventional techniques are also limited by aspects such as set up costs, time, minimum quantities that justify a business case, and geometry constraints imposed by conventional manufacturing. 

In case of tooling inserts, complex forms and designs with integrated cooling or tempering channels can easily be improved upon—giving greater cooling efficiency, and thereby increasing the life of the insert, while at the same time enhancing the quality of the manufactured plastic components. The overall cost of using the technology is much lesser considering the set-up costs, rejection rates, and material usage inefficiency present in conventional methods.

The defence industry is among the earliest adopters of Additive Manufacturing along with the Aerospace industry, in a myriad of applications State run defence agencies and private defence organizations are using AM in highly critical projects for missiles, fighter jets, customized equipment, handheld weapons, drones, respiratory gear, and much more. The defence logistics and product acquisition Th processes are already in the process of transformation with the help of relatively small and tactical AM centers deployed in army, naval and air force establishments. Perhaps the most impactful application of AM could be portable in-field AM centers deployed near conflict zones.

The defense industry is among the earliest adopters of Additive Manufacturing along with the Aerospace industry. In a myriad of applications State-run defense agencies and private defense organizations are using AM in highly critical projects for missiles, fighter jets, customized equipment, handheld weapons, drones, respiratory gear, and much more. The defense logistics and product acquisition processes are already in the process of transformation with the help of relatively small and tactical AM centers deployed in army, naval and air force establishments. Perhaps the most impactful application of AM could be portable in-field AM centers deployed near conflict zones.