Ford uses Ultimaker desktop 3D printer for design and manufacturing

Ford has been utilising Ultimaker desktop printers to design and manufacture assembly tools such as jigs, fixtures and gauges, and the Ultimaker open filament system has enabled material producers to provide industrial-grade materials with different properties.

Ford is using 3D printing in its pilot plant in Cologne, a plant which has a complete small-series production facility with which the new vehicle designs are developed to series maturity.

During the development of car models, engineers require a large number of custom-fit production tools. Often designed for a specific task and model.

The serial production of the Ford Focus alone requires more than 50 different assembly tools, which are initially developed in the Pilot Plant and later printed on site in all European plants.

The creation and procurement of these tools via external contract manufacturers takes a lot of time, is cost-intensive, and slows down the development process, so to optimise the workflow, Ford’s Additive Manufacturing Team decided to integrate desktop 3D printers from Ultimaker into the workflow.

Lars Bognar, Research Engineer for Additive Manufacturing at Ford, said: “Ford chose Ultimaker because the quality and reliability of the print results are in optimal proportion to the costs.”

Compared to the costs for conventionally produced tools in cooperation with external partners, approximately €1000 per tool is saved for printed assembly aids such as fixtures and jigs.

Instead of an average on ten weeks for external contract design and manufacture, even complex assembly fixtures are now available within ten days at the latest.

Currently, the Ford development team in Cologne provides the design of the tools for other production sites, which can be printed directly in site within 24 hours.

In addition, the assembly aids are up to 70 per cent lighter than conventional tools, and at Ford alone, more than 50 different additive tools are used in the series production of the Ford Focus.