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33 WHAT ARE THEY MAKING? "Most of the prototypes are plastics. Some are printed metal. Some are cast- ings made with a printed sand mold. "We do a lot of models for new pro- grams and concept vehicles. But there are a large number of parts built that are functional and go to our racing pro-grams, where we need just one or two. "We print a lot of air intake manifolds that can be put onto vehicles. It's for testing, but they're still quite func- tional. They can be put on dynamo- meters for 100,000 miles or so. They're quite durable." WHY DO THEY DO IT? Pretty much the usual reason. "There are a lot of designs that we need to look at. To cut an injection mold takes quite a lot of time and is costly," Lee says. WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO ADVANCE THE TECH? "This year we created a research program in additive manufacturing." Through this, Lee and her colleagues are "seeing a lot of new technologies that will have a great impact on manufacturing for automotive." "FOR AUTOMOTIVE." There's the key phrase. Sure, everyone knows about the use of additive for printing products like turbine blades for aerospace and knees for medical. But in these (and related) instances, the volumes are much, much lower than in automotive. Lee says that one of the inhibitors to additive manufacturing is the cycle time of the process versus the cycle time for an existing process, like injection molding. "Today, looking at the technologies available right now, it is really tough for high-volume, mass-produced parts." But she notes that in their research program they're looking at some new and emerging technologies that may address the issue of speed. (Not surprisingly, Lee doesn't share what these technologies are.) Another inhibitor she cites—"a big one"—is materials. "Unlike aerospace or medical appli- cations," Lee says, "automotive has quite a number of more material types of interest that we might consider or like to have. So it is important to expand the number of material options." So in the Ford additive program, they're working with an array of interests— established materials companies, start-ups, government labs, and universities—to help develop more materials that would be appropriate for automotive application. A ROYAL PROBLEM There is another materials-related con- cern that Lee expresses vis-à-vis the greater use of additive manufacturing. "In automotive, we use a large num- ber of plastic and composite materials, and price is king for us." But here's the rub: generally, additive equipment manufacturers supply the materials that are used on their machines. Consequently, Lee explains, it doesn't help the cost equation when there is a single source for materials, the manufacturer of the machine. It is possible to create geometries that minimize weight without afecting performance through additive, geometries that can't be readily achieved otherwise because of process limitations. She says, however, that as there is growing interest among general manufacturers who use a number of materials and who like to have more than one supplier there is likely to be an understanding on the parts of equipment manufacturers who will recognize that they're going to need to increase the number of available materials, which should help reduce the costs. HOW TO COMPETE ON SOME- THING NOT DIRECT CYCLE TIME Lee observes: "An instrument panel is usually made out of a polyolefn, polypropylene, which is not a material that can be printed but injection molded in about a minute." So two issues: (1) a material is used for a part that isn't printable; (2) the cycle time is a fraction of what printing would require. HOW CAN THIS BE OVERCOME? Lee answers, "I don't think what we want to do is compete part by part with the same design." She thinks that it is important that parts be designed not with injection mold- ing or machining or stamping or