I’m not usually one for blowing me own hooter but this week’s most-read item on just-auto was last week’s week, if you get my drift, mostly musing on the former GM Europe brands Opel and Vauxhall, now in the steady hands of PSA. Worth a read – especially the underlying articles – if you missed it.
This week’s most-read story was, reflecting our readership, news of Volkswagen‘s claim to be the first automaker using computer-printer-maker-for-the-world HP‘s Metal Jet 3D technology which simplifies and speeds up metallic printing. The automaker said productivity improves by 50 compared to other 3D printing methods, depending on the component and added “three-dimensional printing is mass production ready”. The company is working with both HP and component manufacturer GKN Powder Metallurgy to start mass production after showing the new process at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago.
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While I think computer printing your new car might be some way off (the US, natch, is already doing guns), 3D printing in resins and plastics is already going, er, great guns, in all sorts of industries including medical and, of course, autos. Prototyping parts is one use and Daimler has also been trialling 3D printing of one-off metal and plastic parts such as a themostat cover. Makes a lot of sense. In t’old days, when I was a parts counter jockey, someone would appear wanting a new obsolete part for an equally obsolete vehicle model. If it wasn’t in stock on our racks or in the head office warehouse, tough. We might try the manufacturer (usually overseas so taking months to get if available) but in the meantime the response was: “Try the wreckers down the road”. Today, you might shout out on social media and hope someone finds that obscure NOS (new old stock) bit you need in a job lot they bought when a dealer closed down or cleared out the warehouse, or still on a shelf somewhere in Chile, long forgotten. Daimler’s idea is you send, electronically, the specification of the part from original OEM records to a far-flung parts counter and they use a suitable printer to make a one-off. Way cheaper and more efficient than, once in a while, blowing the dust off old tooling and persuading a Tier-something to do a run of so many parts, most of which will themselves gather dust for years before being sold, if ever. We’re going to hear more and more about 3D printing, I reckon.
British sports and luxury car maker Aston Martin, purveyor of (some) James Bond conveyances, was really in the news this week, firstly with the announcement of a new joint venture between Williams Advanced Engineering and Unipart Manufacturing Group set to open in Coventry, here in the English automaking Midlands, early in 2019, creating around 90 jobs, initially to supply A-M. It’s claimed the so called Hyperbat will be the UK’s largest independent vehicle battery manufacturer making power packs for hybrid and pure electric vehicles.
Almost simultaneously, Aston Martin itself said its new factory at St Athan in Wales would become its centre for electrification and the manufacturing home for the new electric Lagonda brand. The Rapide E (remove standard Rapide combustion engine, insert electric motor, batteries required) will be built in Wales when production commences in 2019. St Athan was also named as the home of Lagonda production. As an aside, that Welsh acquisition, a while back, caused a little local niggle in Warwickshire, where A-M has its HQ next to a Jaguar Land Rover facility and just down the road from the British Motor Museum where a selection of each’s earlier products sometimes reside. I think I can guess where the better incentives for a new factory (and its jobs) were. Completing a trifecta of news, Aston Martin Lagonda also announced this week an initial public offering (IPO) and will list its shares for trading on the London Stock Exchange LSE). It also said it planned to boost output into five figures and increase profits. The automaker named a new board of directors, too.
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Vehicle and future model analysis is ongoing, here at just-auto, and this week we considered future Chevrolet models (part one and part two) plus wondered if Hyundai’s sporty i30 is now worth including in the same sentence as VW’s Golf GTi.
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By GlobalDataHave a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
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