BMW is opening an additive manufacturing centre to pool its expertise

The car manufacturer BMW has just opened a centre dedicated to additive manufacturing: the Additive Manufacturing Campus in Oberschleissheim, north of Munich. Announced in 2019, this opening should enable the German group to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing in its activities, both for prototypes and series production. Having benefited from an investment of €15 million, the centre will also focus on research into new 3D printing technologies and associated training for the global roll-out of tool-less production. In this way, the group hopes to become a leader in 3D printing technologies in the automotive sector.

BMW has been focusing on additive manufacturing for more than 25 years, with very promising results, claiming to have 3D printed more than one million parts by the end of 2018. In fact, a number of projects including 3D printed parts, such as the BMW i8 Roadster, are worth mentioning. Milan Nedeljković, member of the BMW AG Board of Directors and responsible for production, explains: “Additive manufacturing is already an integral part of our global production system today, and is established in our digitisation strategy. In the future, new technologies of this kind will further reduce production times and enable us to exploit the potential of tool-free manufacturing even more fully“. The group relies in particular on strong partnerships with Carbon but also Desktop Metal.

In particular, BMW has invested in Desktop Metal machines | Credits: BMW

BMW’s additive manufacturing centre

The manufacturer explains that its new campus currently employs 80 people and is equipped with around 50 industrial, polymer and metal 3D printing solutions. In addition, there are 50 other 3D printers spread around the world. These include HP Multi Jet Fusion, EOS, SLM, Carbon, Desktop Metal and Nexa3D machines. Daniel Schäfer, Senior Vice President, Production Integration and Pilot Plant Integration, BMW Group, adds: “Our goal is to increasingly industrialise 3D printing methods for automotive production and to implement new automation concepts in the process chain. This will enable us to streamline the manufacture of components for series production and accelerate development. At the same time, we are collaborating with vehicle development, component production, purchasing and the supplier network, as well as with various other areas of the company to systematically integrate the technology and use it efficiently“. The numerous printing solutions at the BMW centre should therefore enable higher production volumes, more complex parts to be produced in order to design the vehicles of the future.