Volkswagen AG enhances automotive design with in two Stratasys J850 3D printers

Volkswagen has invested in the world’s only full colour, multi-material 3D printing technology from Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) to enhance its prototyping capabilities and open up new opportunities within automotive design.

Following the installation of two PolyJet Technology - based Stratasys J850™ 3D Printers, the Volkswagen Pre-Series-Center is 3D printing a wide range of ultra-realistic prototypes for both interior and exterior applications – helping the company to drive further innovation within new vehicle design.

According to Volkswagen, this latest investment allows the design team to meet Volkswagen’s stringent quality requirements, with the capability to now create complex multi-material prototypes that mirror final production parts with up to 99 per cent precision. This level of realism will enable the team to better test and improve overall part designs.

The J850 provides Volkswagen the unique ability to produce full-colour prototypes in up to seven different materials varying in rigidity, flexibility, opaqueness, and transparency – all in a single print. This saves significant time and costs over traditional multi-step design processes such as part assembly and painting.

For vehicle interiors, the Volkswagen Pre-Series-Center team is also 3D printing parts with different textured surfaces – from fabric and leather to wood.

Peter Bartels, head of the Volkswagen Pre-Series-Center, commented: “Volkswagen has always put innovation at the heart of everything it does, in order to develop vehicles that excite our customers and make them proud to own. To achieve this, it is essential we provide our design teams with the latest cutting-edge technologies to unleash their creativity and enable them to set the standard in automotive design. The recent addition of the J850 3D Printers offers us additional capabilities that strengthen our 3D printing operations and allow us to further optimize our design process.”

Andreas Langfeld, President EMEA, Stratasys, added: “Volkswagen has been a longstanding customer who has always embraced the value of PolyJet 3D printing and pushed the boundaries of the technology to innovate the design process. The J850 is our most advanced system yet, offering companies the means to take their design capabilities to the next level and gain a competitive edge. We are very excited to see what creative applications the Volkswagen team can develop with this technology.”