A Review of Automotive Spare-Part Reconstruction Based on Additive Manufacturing

In the Industry 4.0 scenario, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies play a fundamental role in the automotive field, even in more traditional sectors such as the restoration of vintage cars. Car manufacturers and restorers benefit from a digital production workflow to reproduce spare parts that are no longer available on the market, starting with original components, even if they are damaged. This review focuses on this market niche that, due to its growing importance in terms of applications and related industries, can be a significant demonstrator of future trends in the automotive supply chain. Through selected case studies and industrial applications, this study analyses the implications of AM from multiple perspectives. Firstly, various types of AM processes are used, although some are predominant due to their cost-effectiveness and, therefore, their better accessibility and wide diffusion. In some applications, AM is used as an intermediate process to develop production equipment (so-called rapid tooling), with further implications in the digitalisation of conventional primary technologies and the entire production process. Secondly, the additive process allows for on-demand, one-off, or small-batch production. Finally, the ever-growing variety of spare parts introduces new problems and challenges, generating constant opportunities to improve the finish and performance of parts, as well as the types of processes and materials, sometimes directly involving AM solution providers

Assessment of Design for Additive Manufacturing Based on CAD Platforms

The aim of this paper is to analyze some critical issues in the Design for Additive Manufacturing workflow and evaluate the introduction of CAD platforms as backbone tools to shorten product development time and raise its efficiency. It is focused on the design of components to be printed by Powder Bed Fusion metal Additive Manufacturing. Even though the use of additive technologies firmly joins a CAD mathematical model and the actually printed component, the workflow from the concept to the definitive job may result in many sequential steps which have complex and slow relationships. Currently, at the state of art for the production of components specifically designed to be produced by additive manufacturing, there are issues both with the adoption of STL as interchange files and the not reversible sequence of tasks. For example, if a problem occurs in the part re-design during component industrialization, usually one must restart the work from the beginning. Thus, an improvement of the design workflow that could shorten time to product and improve both product performances and process quality and reliability, is necessary. In particular, the use of CAD platforms that integrates CAD and CAE tools has been investigated. An automotive case study, originally made by traditional subtractive technology (CNC milling), has been re-designed with topology optimization in order to be printed by Selective Laser Melting process with benefit of weight reduction. Design and industrialization tasks have been tested with respect to the selected integrated CAD platform, and potential improvements have been evaluated

Integrated CAD platform approach for Design for Additive Manufacturing of high performance automotive components

Use of Additive Manufacturing provides great potentials to settings focused on high performance products. It allows feasibility of sundry innovative features to completely rethink geometries and shapes and it leads to embrace new design approaches. The enhanced design freedom can be exploited to optimize products, using techniques such as topology optimization. The study of methods for development of optimized components to be produced by AM becomes therefore fundamental. A framework for the methodological approach to operations to be carried out from the concept model to the printed component has been analyzed and it is clear that issues and research efforts relapse both the global level of the workflow and the local level of singular tasks to be performed. Problems related to management of Design for Additive Manufacturing workflow can be solved with holistic approach, through the use of computer aided integrated tools. The aim of this work is to test the effectiveness at local level of such tools with respect to operations for both design and industrialization optimization, working on an automotive case study. In particular, specific tools for topology optimization, product simulation, printing preparation and process simulation are taken as reference and results obtained with an integrated CAD platform are discussed

CAD-based risk assessment approach for safe scheduling of HRC operations for parts produced by laser powder bed fusion

The presented paper suggests a design method which seeks to identify the best scheduling of human robot collaborative (HRC) operations with respect to a required safety level. The human behavior along manufacturing scenarios is effectively forecasted through dedicated computer-aided tools. Consequently, this method stresses the usage of virtual environment to replicate both human postures and robot encumbrances over the manufacturing operations. Moreover, it proposes a safety index formulation for HRC systems based on the minimum distance between human and robot (H-R). As results, the approach returns the safety index for every possible combination of H-R operations. Subsequently, a scheduling algorithm suggests the operations sequence depending on the expected value of the safety index, providing an evaluation of the time needed to complete the process. The method is validated on surface control phase involved in post-processing of parts produced by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) Additive Manufacturing

Optimization of an Engine Piston Through CAD Platforms and Additive Manufacturing Based Systematic Product Redesign

The present work describes an automotive component design optimization process through a systematic approach. The redesign aims to improve product performance by Powder Bed Fusion metal Additive Manufacturing. The approach allows to match Topology Optimization and Design for Additive Manufacturing by exploiting benefits provided by CAD platforms that integrate CAD, CAE and CAM tools. The Systematic Concept-Selection-Based Approach aims to make redesign simple and effective, allowing design solutions exploration while containing product design lead time. Topology Optimization is the key phase to achieve lightweight design by a double-level optimization approach. In particular, the technique is setup to produce different design variants, whose subsequently undergo a Trade-off study to perform the concept selection step. Finally, one final redesign occurs and a design refinement step is performed to achieve product optimization. The case study is a high performance internal combustion engine piston, which has been redesigned to be produced by Selective Laser Melting process with benefit of weight reduction

Systematic integration of topology optimization techniques in design for additive manufacturing methodologies applied to automotive settings

Additive Manufacturing is having a great trend since its implementation possible benefits have been widely discussed and efforts in technology improvements are having impact on process reliability and industrial application. The aims of this work are to analyze the current and forthcoming scenario of methods for the specific development of parts to be produced by metal AM including topology optimization as a basic design step and to demonstrate that systematical design approaches can be introduced in order to better exploit potentials offered by AM implementation. The general framework composed by the main tasks is introduced and discussed. Key factors such as advance in different design solutions exploration, product-related and process-related design constraint implementation in the design phase and method effectiveness in product development lead time minimization are presented. Linear and iterative workflows are described, considering features, decision making points, pros and cons, possible variants and research hints. A strong connection between methods and actual means is highlighted and workflow implementation using standard and integrated commercial tools is considered. Such methods are related to several automotive case studies presented in order to demonstrate their applicability and to show actual results and possible further development.

COMPONENTS RESIDUAL STRESS AND DEFORMATION REDUCTION: AN INTEGRATED PROCESS DESIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a key technology in current industrial transformations thanks to the significant benefits that can bring to high-level sectors. Nevertheless, AM-based design approaches require improvements that are fundamental to exploit the potentials of the technology and reduce the lack of process consistency. This work focuses on integrated Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) approaches for product-process design, to meet both functional and technological targets. The key aspects of process design and issues are summarized and the design method to perform metal AM process optimization is presented. The aim is therefore to minimize process-induced defects and flaws of AM-based manufacturing of metal products, such as residual stress and distortions. The approach consists of industrialization task improvement based on modelling optimization and build optimization sub-phases supported by numerical process simulation. Integration of CAD platforms allows embedding these steps to be performed downstream of the product design, which can be achieved through functional or multifunctional optimization techniques as well (e.g. topology optimization, latticing, graded structures/materials). The design method is finally applied to perform the industrialization phase of a high-performance automotive component. The case study is a formula SAE topology optimized brake caliper to be produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process. Process simulationdriven studies on modelling and build preparation subphases (i.e. orientation definition, supports generation, model distortion compensation) are conducted to support the process design. The study demonstrates the part scale level method's suitability to industrial context to improve industrialization in the redesign of components to be produced by metal AM

Towards the Design-Driven Carbon Footprint Reduction of Composite Aerospace and Automotive Components: An Overview

Composite materials, pioneered by aerospace engineering due to their lightness, strength, and durability properties, are increasingly adopted in the high-performance automotive sector. Besides the acknowledged composite components' performance, enabled lightweighting is becoming even more crucial for energy efficiency, and therefore emissions along vehicle use phase from a decarbonization perspective. However, their use entails energy-intensive and polluting processes involved in the production of raw materials, manufacturing processes, and particularly their end-of-life disposal. Carbon footprint is the established indicator to assess the environmental impact of climate-changing factors on products or services. Research on different carbon footprint sources reduction is increasing, and even the European Composites Industry Association is demanding the development of specific Design for Sustainability approaches. This paper analyzes the early strategies for providing low-carbon aerospace and automotive composite components by design. The goal is to enable design approaches that consider the material life cycle from product and process design, material selection and fabrication, to eventual recycling and reuse. The investigation includes the design approaches and tools, and the aspects concerning ultimate trends of materials development, shapes generation, and manufacturing processes. Among these, we discuss the potential role of emerging technologies such as digital intelligence, Biocomposites, biomimicry, generative AI, and additive manufacturing. The aim is to identify the framework of possible drivers for Design for Sustainability approaches, rethinking lightweight products lifecycles and highlighting the resulting challenges and future developments. Moreover, as practical examples, a few innovative cases are provided to prove the effective potentials of such guidelines. The conclusive remarks discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the design drivers and the need for assessment and validation through vehicle Life Cycle Assessment approaches