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37 p This is the EDAG GENESIS, a concept produced with FDM. p EDAG engineers determined that by including carbon fber into the plastic material, required stifness and strength could be achieved in the FDM structure. p One of the advantages of additive manufacturing is that it allows the creation of structures with varying thicknesses, thereby providing additional strength where required. during the FDM process, thereby increasing the required strength and stiffness without having a signifcant weight penalty. While the EDAG engineers acknow- ledge that something like the GENESIS is purely conceptual, they think that given the rapid advances that are occurring in the AM sector, concepts like this may become real within the next 20 years or so. "There are things that you can make with additive that you just can't do with machining," he says. For example, if you want to make a part with internal feature content, with machining you are likely to have to make two parts and put them together. If you want a part that has features that move relative to one another, then it is either additive or assembly. But he points out that due to the nature of what they produce at JCI— the aforementioned stamping, welding and injection molding—he'd like to see more work being done in the area of AM with metals. Beyond changes in materials costs and equipment, White says that engineers must work toward having a diferent perspective on how products are developed. "The auto industry is already at a cost-efective way of producing things that for us to utilize additive manufacturing for fnal part production, we have to think completely diferently, like taking dozens of parts and making them one part. Most engineers in their 40s and 50s"—and he doesn't exclude himself— "have to struggle to contemplate that." And while he thinks that within fve to 10 years when it comes to producing polymer parts people will have to consider whether to go AM or use conventional molding, and that within 10 to 15 years it will be a question of additive or subtractive for metals (though he acknowledges that he may be of in his time estimates—that it may happen sooner), he does say that for the auto industry, it will be more niche vehicle rather than mass production—on the order of 10,000 units per year or less. t Brennon White says that they're using additive processes at JCI to build parts that allow them to see inside assemblies, like this seat. They are also looking at the ways and means it will allow them to produce parts in limited production runs. An Additive Auto Although vehicle designers some- times use nature to refer to their designs, it is typically something like a cheetah or a lightning bolt, something signifying speed or sleekness or the like. But the designers and engineers at EDAG (edag.de) had something else in mind when developing the EDAG GENESIS concept, which was revealed earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. They wanted to show the potential of using additive manufacturing (AM) for the development of vehicles, bodies and chassis. They wanted to develop something that would provide strength and stability, with a particular focus on safety. How- ever, there is also the issue of reducing mass, as well. And the result would need to be reasonably aerodynamic, too. The natural form they based the GENESIS on: the turtle. What it lacks in sexiness, it makes up for in appropriateness, as the structure is both protective and light, with variable section thicknesses as required. Personnel from the EDAG Compe- tence Center for Lightweight Construction assessed various AM techniques, including selective laser sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), stereolithography (SLA), and fused deposition modeling (FDM), for the applicability for the vehicle construction. They are most interested in FDM, because they fnd the ability to make complex parts of "almost any size" to be robotically produced without tools or fxtures. While there was concern regarding the strength, stiffness, and energy-absorbing qualities provided by the plastics that are used in AM processes, including FDM, they determined that it is possible to embed carbon fber material right into the plastic 0614ADP FEATURE On Additive.indd 37 5/21/2014 12:52:10 PM