Our third episode is an interview with key members of the Ultimaker team, who share their knowledge and insight into the evolving role of FFF 3D printing, in both manufacturing and design.

Episode 3: The future of manufacturing

At Ultimaker, we rigorously test our materials to provide the best possible results. Not only to ensure excellent mechanical and aesthetic properties, but also so that the preconfigured settings in our Ultimaker Cura software offer a hassle-free 3D printing experience. In this blog we give an insight into this process and look at how we test and develop various combinations of 3D printing materials.<section>Having preconfigured profiles in our software makes it easy for users to start printing without any delays. Our materials and processing engineers look at a number of factors when optimizing material profiles. From the type of printer and nozzle size to needs like speed and strength, there are certain criteria that must be met before a profile is added to <a href="https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura" target="_blank">Ultimaker Cura</a>.This same rigorous process has also been applied to developing composite material profiles (printable on the Ultimaker S5), in collaboration with world-leading material manufacturers – including <a href="https://ultimaker.com/learn/owens-corning-creating-the-perfect-material-profiles-for-customers" target="_blank">Owens Corning</a>.<h2>Behind preconfigured material profiles</h2>In order to refine a material’s optimal printing settings, first the team establishes a baseline for recommended settings, like nozzle and bed temperature.Then, an extensive testing and evaluation process ensures that print profiles are optimized. Material parameters such as temperature and fan settings are all analyzed and adjusted accordingly. The team also looks at the relevant speeds, wall thickness, line widths, infill, and acceleration to help set up the right material profile. Finally, a series of test prints are made to check issues like layer splitting, warping and oozing.</section><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1603016694145-Benchy_test_prints.webp" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width: 788px;"><section><h2>Creating the perfect profile</h2>Ultimaker Cura offers over 300 possible settings. For our preconfigured profiles, these settings have been designed to take the guesswork out for you, so you can print reliably without the need for a lot of experimentation and manual configuration.Of course, using your own custom settings is also possible, depending on what you’re trying to do with your print. For dual extrusion prints, there are also setting options for both extruders in Ultimaker Cura, so you can adjust these individually.<h2>Combining two materials</h2>With a dual extrusion printer like the <a href="https://ultimaker.com/3d-printers/ultimaker-s5" target="_blank">Ultimaker S5</a>, you can print items using two materials. This is particularly useful when it comes to support materials like Breakaway and PVA. However, it’s important to remember that some materials combine better than others due to their properties.Breakaway has been designed as a support material that adheres well to other materials like PLA, Tough PLA, Nylon, ABS, CPE, and CPE+. PVA combines well with PLA, Tough PLA, Nylon, and CPE.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1603016750623-Material_compatibility_table.webp" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">This diagram shows officially supported, experimental, and not supported material combinations. Officially supported materials can be used together reliably without problems. Experimental materials can be used together, but may not give reliable results that meet our quality standards. Materials that are not supported cannot be used together.One of the most commonly used materials, ABS, is not recommended to print with PVA as it has a tendency to warp at the point between the two materials. So if you need to support an overhang on an ABS print, you can use our removable <a href="https://ultimaker.com/learn/which-3d-printing-supports-to-use-pla-pva-or-breakaway" target="_blank">Breakaway</a> support material instead.When TPU 95A is combined with another material, it can result in negative artifacts on the print called ‘oozing’ due to its flexible nature. Some material combinations experienced more oozing than others. These are marked as unsupported, rather than experimental.PP, while a useful material due to its fatigue-resistant properties and widespread use in manufacturing, struggles to stick to anything other than itself so it is not recommended in dual extrusion prints.Another factor to consider with dual extrusion prints is the nozzle size that is used. For instance, printing Breakaway with a 0.25 mm nozzle results in support material that is not easy to remove and may cause damage to the print if too much force is applied. When in doubt, always refer to the <a href="https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011461000" target="_blank">compatibility tables</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1603016828466-PVA_after.webp" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">While some material combinations are technically printable, due to a lack of practical applications not all combinations have been fully explored, which is why some of our combinations are marked as not supported.Trying out new materials and discovering how different settings work can be useful if you are working on a unique or unusual project. For reliable printing, however, preconfigured printing profiles can save a lot of time. Knowing which materials can be combined, and which ones don’t work so well together, can help you in producing prints that meet your needs.</section>

At Ultimaker, we rigorously test our materials to provide the best possible results. Not only to ensure excellent mechanical and aesthetic properties, but also so that the preconfigured settings in our Ultimaker Cura software offer a hassle-free 3D printing experience.

How we test 3D printing material combinations

I&#39;ve covered different ways automobile manufacturers are benefiting from the advantages <a href="https://www.3erp.com/services/3d-printing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">3D printing</a> brings to the forefront. As technology is gaining a more mainstream foothold within the automobile industry, many companies are taking note, but many are using it in different capacities and for various purposes. These needs can encompass anything, from tools to spare parts/supply chain management to end-use parts and even full cars.It&rsquo;s interesting to see how far the technology has come, how it&rsquo;s employed by the big names in the industry and where they see it going fort their future production chains. This article aims to provide insight into the many ways some of the biggest automobile manufacturers in the world use 3D printing in their workflow.<h1>BMW</h1><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577987804482-bmw-prototype.jpg" style="width: 1114px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">As most 3D printing is used for smaller volume production runs, there is a lot of room for customization and adding complexity using the unique elements that 3D printing allows. BMW is no stranger to such forms of design and manufacturing, employing 3D printing in pre-development, vehicle validation, and testing, or in concept and show cars. They employ the technology for larger volumes, but smaller production runs allow them to personalize products precisely to their customer&rsquo;s needs.The company has been prolific in their use of additive manufacturing, noting that they potentially see &ldquo;great future potential for serial production and new customer offers&rdquo; (according to BMW&rsquo;s experts in Germany). They&rsquo;ve been using the technology to enhance both plastic and metal components. They&rsquo;ve most famously been working with HP to produce products on their large scale manufacturing systems.Like many other companies on this list, BMW has been using it as a means of producing parts that other technologies cannot create. A good example of this is the i8 Roadster&rsquo;s top cover. Making the mounting for this component would not have been possible using a traditional casting process. Aside from expanding the design possibilities, the 3D printed car part is more durable and it also weighs less than previous iterations.Similarly, BMW unveiled the iFE.20 Formula E racer with a 3D printed cooling shaft manufactured from flax fibers. The part was shown off at the end of 2019. Compared to the usual carbon materials, flax has greater absorption and greater impact resistance, which can be advantageous on the street circuits with their bumps and crash barriers, on which Formula E takes place. This made it the first BMW racecar fielded by a work team with parts made out of renewable textile fibers, also making it environmentally friendly.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577987841677-gloves-prototype.jpg">BMW&rsquo;s Gloves With Protected ThumbThe company uses 3D printing for tooling and safety as well. A good example of this is the specialized gloves they use to finish off the stoppers for drain holes. These stoppers have to be manually set with the engineer&rsquo;s fingers, which means a lot of strain on the thumbs. Luckily, they came up with the 3D printed solution that could be fitted onto the work gloves.Even aside from their work on their own automobiles, the company&rsquo;s engineers have been lending a hand to outside projects. One example is the development of the bespoke 3D-printed seats for the British Paralympics Basketball team. Using 3D body scans and the latest in additive manufacturing, BMW&rsquo;s engineers constructed a whole fleet of wheelchairs allowing for players to display a more advanced level of athletic prowess.<h1>Ford</h1><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577987898671-Jigs-and-Fiextures.jpg">Ford&rsquo;s Jigs &amp; FixturesAs far as commitment to 3D printing goes, Ford is running headfirst into embracing the technology. The company set up an additive manufacturing center and employed its operations extensively into their workflows. In terms of creating plastic and metal prints, they&rsquo;ve had a long-running partnership with various companies such as Ultimaker, Stratasys and GE Additive, who provide machines for all sorts of AM applications across the production chain.They also use 3D printing to cut cost and time for tooling, as the company found that it was quicker to make their own parts on the facility as opposed to waiting for suppliers and other such things. They also apply these same principles to jigs and fixtures, which they develop in facilities all over the world.They&rsquo;ve expanded their 3D printing operations over the course of the past few decades, manufacturing both metal and plastic components. As the company states: &ldquo;In the last few decades, Ford has printed well over 500,000 parts and saved billions of dollars and millions of hours of work. Where it would have taken 4-5 months and cost $500,000 to produce a prototype with traditional methods, a 3D printed part can be produced in a matter of days or hours at a cost of a few thousand dollars&rdquo;.Similarly, Ford&rsquo;s various subsidiaries have been showing off their AM chops, most notably the design teams behind the Shelby GT500. This year, they 3D printed the most promising designs for the new GT500 in a matter of days, which sped up the improvement and testing stages immensely. This pace allows them to rapidly tweak the Shelby GT500 little by little, bringing in new physical designs at breakneck speeds. They also developed a new spoiler-wing hybrid design that the team is calling &lsquo;the swing&rsquo;. This new design is a prominent factor in the GT500&rsquo;s impressive aerodynamic capabilities.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577987952613-engine-prototype.jpg">EcoBoost EngineThe company set another major 3D printing milestone back in February. Their Ford Performance division, dealing with high-performance components, 3D printed what they claim is the largest metal automotive part for a working vehicle in automotive history. The metal part was installed in the Hoonitruck, a 1977 Ford F-150 with a twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 EcoBoost engine. The part itself is an aluminium manifold inlet, printed using GE Additive&rsquo;s Concept Laser X LINE 2000R.<h1>Volvo<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577987985331-volvo.jpg" style="width: 1114px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"></h1>While not the most prominent user of automotive 3D printing, Volvo has been making great strides on this front in recent years. Much like a lot of the other companies on this list, Volvo has been using 3D printing for tooling and supply chain management. The use of 3D printing has particularly been useful in restocking the company&rsquo;s machines with new prints for out of production parts. Volvo is mostly using 3D printed plastic parts and is looking towards the implementation of metal ones in the near future.As of 2018, the company was using additive manufacturing primarily for prototyping and tooling. &ldquo;As we only need to produce low volumes of parts for prototyping, it&rsquo;s a good way to see what works,&rdquo; says Fredrick Andersson, Development Engineer for Wheel Loaders Powertrain Installation at Volvo CE [construction equipment]. &ldquo;We have a lot of knowledge and we can make changes quickly and easily with 3D printing. And because of this, it means that the time to market for a new product is quicker, so it&rsquo;s of great benefit to our company.&rdquo;The increased speed of prototyping has been massively helpful to the company, as various new tech they were testing proves. For example, Volvo engineers designed new water pump housings for the company&rsquo;s A25G and A30G vehicles. They ran simulations as a means of optimizing the design of internal flow passages in the housing, but needed to build a prototype to perform functional testing to validate the new design. The tooling cost for this project would have been approximately $9,090, with the part cost around $909. The lead time for producing the prototype would have been 20 weeks minimum. On the other hand, 3D printing the prototype cost $770 and took only two weeks.However, in 2019 the company upped the ante in terms of its AM processes, particularly with its Volvo Trucks branch. Their New River Valley (NRV) plant in Dublin, Virginia made quite a few headlines this year among the manufacturing world. They primarily use SLS but have also dabbled in other AM methods. This particular facility produces over 500 manufacturing tools and fixtures in use on the shop floor produced using 3D printing. The facility is also a major hub for North American automotive engineering.Aside from commercial automobiles, the company also develops construction equipment. Sure enough, 3D printing has also made its mark on this aspect of the company&rsquo;s operations. Volvo applied 3D printing in re-tooling their articulated haul trucks, and thus cutting down the cost of prototyping by a tenth. This also allowed them to reduce the time spent from 20 to merely 2 weeks.<h1>GM<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577988029323-GMC.jpg" style="width: 1106px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"></h1>General Motors, and its various other branches, are major users (and developers) of 3D printing technology. As of 2018, GM was saving $300,000 a year on tooling and is making sufficient advances towards the development of new technologies using alternative fuel sources. The leading automaker&nbsp;announced last year it plans to launch 20 new electric and fuel cell models globally by the year 2023.Although their 3D printing operations have largely been about prototyping, they are expanding. The company further plans to scale up their printing operations to produce &ldquo;tens of thousands of parts at scale as the technology improves,&rdquo; according to Kevin Quinn, director of additive design and manufacturing at GM. This plan is likely to unfold over the next 5 years.The company&rsquo;s Warren Tech Center produces roughly 30,000 prototype parts each year. The parts consist of at least nine sorts of materials, employing combinations of plastics and metal and powders. They are primarily used for prototyping but the company is also looking at end-use parts. They also co-own HRL laboratories with Boeing, who ended producing a 3D printed Aluminum alloy.Dan Grieshaber, GM&rsquo;s director of global manufacturing integration, stated the majority of GM&rsquo;s factories have 3D printers now. The company plans to increase it even further, at least within their North American factories. The move is likely to save GM millions of dollars in production costs annually. GM has long been an investor in 3D printing and it&rsquo;s various sub-branch technologies. They are applying it for the rapid building of tools and accessories for workers in their plants. Just this year, the company stated that the implementation of a $35,000 3D printing machine has saved the company $300,000 over two years. While tooling production is the primary role that the printer plays, it may be possible that the company will increase the role of additive manufacturing in their daily operations.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577988053340-Bracket-Prototype-1024x683.jpg" style="width: 1109px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Their partnership with Autodesk has been beneficial in manufacturing lightweight 3D printed parts that could help the automaker meet its goals to add alternative-fuel vehicles to its product lineup. Also part of this same collaboration, in 2019 both companies showed off 3D-printed seat bracket made of stainless steel and developed with the Autodesk technology.Early in 2019, GM was looking at a novel new design application for 3D printing. In collaboration with Michellin, they were looking to produce a new type of tyre with superior durability. The Uptis tire is still a work in progress but the companies have moved on to the testing phase. They claim the tires would be 100 percent sustainable, resistant and able to last even longer. They are also a much greener alternative, with less waste during production. Recently, engineers were using a fleet of Chevrolet Bolt EVs to test the new tires in Michigan, and have floated the possibility of making them available to the public in 2024.<h1>Porsche</h1><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1577988098320-Porsche-1024x576.jpg" style="width: 1108px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Porsche has been using 3D printing for a range of different purposes, from major components to reinventing the supply chain for their older models. Porsche is currently using 3D printing to produce very specific spare parts, but not that extensively. This is due to the stringent quality standards they need to conduct to ensure the safety is up to scratch. The company also works with a lower overall number of units produced as they are more of classic and luxury car brand.For the development of out of production components such as the release lever for the clutch on the Porsche 959, the company employs laser melting. They make use of powdered tool steel and get the part out far more efficiently than it would be otherwise possible with alternative methods.The use of 3D printing has also allowed the company to move towards on-demand printing, allowing for far lower costs associated with materials, transportation and storage. This is also beneficial as these parts are not in greater demand and are often expensive to keep in constant production. Porsche has most famously been working with Markfordged on reviving these classic parts.Mainly, they use SLM and SLS for the various parts they need to produce. Porsche has stated that the 3D printed parts are superior to the older ones in many cases. While they are printing a limited number of parts currently, they have been expanding the portfolio since 2018 and testing future components.If you have questions, or feedback, feel free to leave them below in the comments.<hr>Sponsored contentThis article was created in partnership with 3ERP. If you are interested in sharing sponsored content on the Wevolver platform email us at richard [at] wevolver.com. Wevolver reaches more than 6 million young, professional engineers and engineering students every month. To learn more visit our &quot;<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/marketing-solutions" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marketing Solutions</a>&quot; page.

This article aims to provide insight into the many ways some of the biggest automobile manufacturers in the world use 3D printing in their workflow.

How 5 Major Automobile Manufacturers Use 3D Printing

The heart-on-a-chip is entirely 3D printed with built-in sensors that measure the contractile strength of the tissue, providing scientists with new possibilities for studying the musculature of the heart 

Technique paves the way for more complex, customizable devices

3D-printed heart-on-a-chip with integrated sensors

Nature has produced exquisite composite materials&mdash;wood, bone, teeth, and shells, for example&mdash;that combine light weight and density with desirable mechanical properties such as stiffness, strength and damage tolerance.Since ancient civilizations first combined straw and mud to form bricks, people have fabricated engineered composites of increasing performance and complexity. But reproducing the exceptional mechanical properties and complex microstructures found in nature has been challenging.Now, a team of researchers at the&nbsp;<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS) has demonstrated a novel 3D printing method that yields unprecedented control of the arrangement of short fibers embedded in polymer matrices. They used this additive manufacturing technique to program fiber orientation within epoxy composites in specified locations, enabling the creation of structural materials that are optimized for strength, stiffness, and damage tolerance.Their method, referred to as &ldquo;rotational 3D printing,&rdquo; could have broad ranging applications. Given the modular nature of their ink designs, many different filler and matrix combinations can be implemented to tailor electrical, optical, or thermal properties of the printed objects.&ldquo;Being able to locally control fiber orientation within engineered composites has been a grand challenge,&rdquo; said the study&rsquo;s senior author, <a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/jalewis" target="_blank">Jennifer A. Lewis</a>, Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard SEAS. &ldquo;We can now pattern materials in a hierarchical manner, akin to the way that nature builds.&rdquo; Lewis is also a Core Faculty Member of the <a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.</a><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569469293043-LewisNozzle.gif" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The work, described in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pnas.org/" target="_blank">PNAS</a>, was carried out in the Lewis lab at Harvard. Collaborators included then-postdoctoral fellows Brett Compton (now Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville), and Jordan Raney (now Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania); and visiting PhD student Jochen Mueller from Prof. Kristina Shea&rsquo;s lab at ETH Zurich.&nbsp;&ldquo;Rotational 3D printing can be used to achieve optimal, or near optimal, fiber arrangements at every location in the printed part, resulting in higher strength and stiffness with less material,&rdquo; Compton said. &ldquo;Rather than using magnetic or electric fields to orient fibers, we control the flow of the viscous ink itself to impart the desired fiber orientation.&rdquo;Compton noted that the team&rsquo;s nozzle concept could be used on any material extrusion printing method, from fused filament fabrication, to direct ink writing, to large-scale thermoplastic additive manufacturing, and with any filler material, from carbon and glass fibers to metallic or ceramic whiskers and platelets.The technique allows for the 3D printing of engineered materials that can be spatially programmed to achieve specific performance goals. For example, the orientation of the fibers can be locally optimized to increase the damage tolerance at locations that would be expected to undergo the highest stress during loading, hardening potential failure points.&ldquo;One of the exciting things about this work is that it offers a new avenue to produce complex microstructures, and to controllably vary the microstructure from region to region,&rdquo; Raney said. &ldquo;More control over structure means more control over the resulting properties, which vastly expands the design space that can be exploited to optimize properties further.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;Biological composite materials often have remarkable mechanical properties: high stiffness and strength per unit weight and high toughness. One of the outstanding challenges of designing engineering materials inspired by biological composites is control of fiber orientation at small length scales and at the local level,&rdquo; said Lorna J. Gibson, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, who was not involved in the research. &ldquo;This remarkable paper from the Lewis group demonstrates a way of doing just that. This represents a huge leap forward in the design of bio-inspired composites.&quot;The <a href="http://otd.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard Office of Technology Development</a> has protected the intellectual property relating to this project.Previously, Lewis has conducted groundbreaking research in the 3D printing of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2014/02/essential-step-toward-printing-living-tissues" target="_blank">tissue constructs with vasculature</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2013/06/printing-tiny-batteries" target="_blank">lithium-ion microbatteries</a>,&nbsp;and the first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2016/08/first-autonomous-entirely-soft-robot" target="_blank">autonomous, entirely soft robot</a>.

A novel 3D printing method, called “rotational 3D printing,” yields unprecedented control of the arrangement of short fibers embedded in polymer matrices. Researchers used additive manufacturing technique to program fiber orientation within epoxy composites in specified locations, enabling the creation of structural materials that are optimized for strength, stiffness, and damage tolerance. (Video courtesy of the Lewis Lab/Harvard SEAS)

multi material 3d printing

Latest Posts

Episode 3: The future of manufacturing

How we test 3D printing material combinations

How 5 Major Automobile Manufacturers Use 3D Printing

3D-printed heart-on-a-chip with integrated sensors

Novel 3D printing technique yields high-performance composites

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