New 3D printing tech could be a game changer for auto design and manufacturing.

Disruption will come when we least expect it. A person who is “just crazy” follows it to fruition and suddenly the world changes. And often this evolves into an unmet need of the customer, the industry, or both.

Interestingly, such disruption appears to have arrived at a small automotive gateway: 3D printing of circuit boards. And the timing couldn’t be more perfect: just as incumbent automakers are scrambling to bring new electric vehicles to market quickly, supply chain issues abound and some combination of inflation or recession sounds like distant rumblings. And although magical articles about the disruption of 3D printing probably sound a little cocky, this technology is crazy enough to disrupt speed-to-market, improve design and supply control over centuries of design and manufacturing.

Speed ​​to market

The concept of “speed to market” has always been a draw of 3D printing: create prototypes quickly, learn customer preferences using Lean User Experience or other strategies, and iterate to an improved solution. But such flexibility is typically available for housing, brackets, or off-board technology (eg, servers that run software). Changing the circuit boards still takes 8-10 weeks. And so the cliché “we’ll fix it with software” became commonplace: using half-baked architecture and somehow jerry-rigging solutions for the more vulnerable parts of the system. time.

However, 3D printing of a new circuit board can now be done in thirty (30) hours, allowing the team to quickly test system latency and performance and work on the build. “In addition to changing the cost structure of full-scale manufacturing, additive systems give designers the freedom to innovate and iterate,” said Zvi Nedvi, president of additive manufacturing electronics (AME) publishing company Nano Dimension. This helps speed up design and development cycles for Hi-Performance Electronic Devices, or Hi-PEDs. While it would normally take two months to produce a finished circuit board, AME can produce it in less than two days, helping to significantly reduce overall cycle time. Innovation depends on multiple rounds of iterative cycles, and these savings can be significant.

Improvements to the design

Perhaps the most impressive part of this technology for automotive: the packaging engineer is no longer concerned with the flat rectangular board that struggles to fit in certain areas (e.g., A-pillar, steering column), and the structural engineer is no longer concerned with the vibration and flexural forces that plague traditional designs. Do you want a box? Or honeycomb? Or any shape that works for a redesigned vehicle? All are welcome and this flexibility allows for unique combinations, lower weights, better strength and multiple value propositions. “AME-manufactured circuit boards can be configured in countless shapes and sizes,” Nedevi said. “This is suitable for the rapid development of the design of cars, especially suitable shapes, for example, round surfaces.”

The updated design centers on another quiet-but-exciting aspect of electric-vehicle-shifting’s first customer need: durability. Consumers and governments around the world are concerned about the impact of automotive on climate change and want to pay attention to the environment. Interestingly, 3D printing circuit boards also helps with this goal. “Traditional electronics manufacturing has an unfortunate and often overlooked dark side: sustainability,” says Nedvi. “A lot of chemicals and energy are used. As the automobile industry tries to promote sustainability through its vehicles, it must not forget how the vehicles – especially the electronics – work. Independent studies have shown that AME is better in terms of chemicals and energy used and many other variables such as water and waste.

Controls for delivery

It should come as no shock to readers that the world is in the midst of the biggest supply chain crisis of our lifetime. Per Willy Shih’s Harvard Business Review article Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World, “The Supply Shock That Began in China in February [of 2020] And the demand shock that follows as the global economy closes in on vulnerabilities in companies’ production strategies and supply chains everywhere… [And] Because of all this, manufacturers around the world are under political and competitive pressure to increase their domestic production, increase employment in their countries, reduce or eliminate their dependence on sources that are considered dangerous, and rethink. Using lean manufacturing strategies that involve reducing inventory levels in their global supply chain. Production shutdown in Wuhan? Print some parts. Is special construction required for a low runner in service? Print some parts. Backup on shipping docks? Print some parts. The flexibility to reduce these operational risks is immeasurable.

Such in-house publishing also helps with intellectual property (IP) controls. Revealing the design of required screws or brackets to many vendors doesn’t reveal a game-changing innovation, but software and electronics are now real diversities and require extra precautions regarding their vulnerabilities. “IP control is another big advantage of AME,” says Nedvi. “To control the best designs, you can produce them completely at home. A [manufacturer] He can create freely, knowing that IP and ideas are tightly locked.

Author’s note

Coupled with such step-function transformation(s) it must be almost certainly nonsensical. A hero and villain across time and space linked by similar fates. He (and, yes, I’m invoking my own gender) would in later years engineer flying taxis, online dating and cleaning robots. Changes to it are revolutions that shake up the cultures and he fights back with blog criticisms like “not fast enough for real production” or “we haven’t seen 3D printing really take off yet”. And regardless of the current decline, it will constantly improve in the future because “demand” will drive the market forward.

Welcome to the future.