The BMW Group (
www.bmwgroup.com) is to invest more than 10 million euros in a new additive-manufacturing campus in Oberschleissheim, just north of Munich.
Udo Hänle, head of production integration, said: “Our new campus will concentrate the full spectrum of the BMW Group’s 3-D printing expertise at a single location. This will allow us to test new technologies early on and continue our developments in this area.”
Jens Ertel, head of the BMW Group’s Additive Manufacturing Center (and the future campus director), said: “Our new facility will be a major milestone in additive manufacturing at the BMW Group.
“The team there will evaluate new and existing technologies in both plastics and metals printing, and develop them to series maturity.
“Our goal is to provide the optimum technology and process chain, be it for individual components, small production runs or even large-scale manufacturing.”
Much of the work carried out at the campus will focus on parts manufacturing for prototype construction, series production and customised solutions.
The campus will cover an area of more than 6,000m
2, accommodate up to 80 staff and house more than 30 industrial systems for 3-D printing metals and plastics. It is scheduled to go on stream in early 2019.
Additive manufacturing is already an integral part of the BMW Group’s production system, and it was recently used to make parts for the BMW i8 Roadster.
The component concerned is part of the structure for the soft-top. Made of aluminium alloy, the printed item is lighter than the normal injection-moulded equivalent — and significantly more rigid.