Metal 3D printing plays an important role in the field of automotive design and development, especially in the validation of engine intake and exhaust side components, which has prominent advantages. Traditional automobile development and design of metal parts, often need mold, long cycle, low efficiency, high cost, can not quickly realize the production and verification of metal prototype.

After using metal 3 d printing technology, designers not only can put the model design more lightweight, more complex, more excellent performance, and design good model only need at very low cost, shorter process, through the metal 3 d printers in a few hours or a few hours of print and simple post-processing, you can get the mock-up. Physical model in the completion of the trial, you can carry out 1:1 assessment experiment. If the design is not reasonable, the model can be modified immediately, and the printing and verification work can be carried out again. After the final model is confirmed, the mass production can be done. This approach greatly speeds up the iteration cycle of vehicle design updates, which also provides favorable conditions for technological innovation in the automotive industry.

Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Foton Cummins") was established in 2008 as a joint venture between Cummins, the world's leading power solutions provider, and BeiQI Foton Motor Co., LTD., a Chinese commercial vehicle enterprise. It is the world's advanced diesel engine production base. It mainly produces light, medium and heavy diesel engines. The factory has an engine manufacturing system designed according to the world's leading technical standards and quality control standards. The production equipment is highly automated, and the main products include F series and X series engines with different displacement, with an annual capacity of 520,000 units.

       Around 2019, Foton Cummins began to use metal 3D printing technology for engine intake and exhaust side parts research and development validation work. In this process, Tianjin LiM Laser Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "LiM Laser") provided good technical support for Fukuda Cummins. In July 2020, Foton Cummins purchased the first Lim-X260A metal Laser selective melting equipment from LiM Laser, which is used to upgrade and innovate engine parts and technology, laying a solid foundation for cooperation between the two companies.

Futian Cummins Testing Center senior engineer Zhang Bo told us: "Fukuda cummins has more than ten enterprises in China, we found that during the product development, there are a lot of parts in the process of upgrading, innovative, can't use the original model, in which a certain size or local improvements, can do a few different sizes of the same parts, if open mould cost is very high, cycle is long. To quickly implement the concept and do some validation, we looked at metal 3D printing."

Zhang also emphasized: "In the process of developing the X12N natural gas version of the heavy engine, we need to modify the gas pipe used by the engine. To make changes to the size and structure of the parts, it is necessary to verify the parts with different sizes. We used LiM Laser's Lim-X260A metal Laser selective melting device for 3D printing, which is easy to do. The printed parts have withstood rigorous testing under extreme conditions of around 750 ° C, greatly saving development costs and improving validation efficiency, which has solved a major problem for us and shortened the entire product validation cycle."

Foton Cummins uses LiM-X260A printed parts

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LiM Laser responded quickly to demand and provided timely support during the collaboration with Fukuda Cummins, effectively ensuring the timing of each project. "I am very satisfied with LiM Laser's technical support and after-sales response speed," zhang said. "LiM Laser's after-sales colleagues are very helpful. When we contact them, whether it is on a weekday or at night, they can give us quick answers. The equipment has been running stably for 18 months, and the frequency of use is also very high. The safe and stable operation of the equipment makes us very relieved. The rapid manufacturing of metal 3D printing has saved us a lot of unnecessary trouble and helped us solve a lot of practical problems."

With the continuous development of 3D printing technology, prototyping, lightweight and mass production will be further deepened in the future, and 3D printing will be more widely used. We also look forward to further cooperation with Foton Cummins, to provide more in-depth solutions for the automotive industry users, and promote the more efficient innovation and development of the automotive industry.