SPEE3D
Nissan component produced with SPEE3D metal 3D printing technology.
Nissan Australia is using SPEE3D’s metal 3D printing technology to manufacture vehicle components and avoid delivery bottlenecks for older parts.
The automotive company’s operations in Spain have recently revealed their use of desktop Fused Deposition Modelling technology for jigs and fixture components, but its team in Australia have successfully deployed SPEE3D’s LightSPEE3D metal platform to replace a broken engine component.
Working together, Nissan Australia and SPEE3D have been able to replace a damaged water pump with a part printed in aluminium 6061. The water pump is a complex component with internal flow channels which help to cool the part but are difficult to be quickly repaired or recreated with conventional manufacturing methods.
Teaming 3D scanning technology with SPEE3D’s metal 3D printing offering, the partners were able to create a 3D model of the water pump before additively manufacturing the part on the LightSPEE3D printer. The component was printed in 40 minutes at a cost of €37.12 and weighing 580 grams. It has successfully been validated and tested to meet Nissan’s requirements, and has proved the capacity of metal 3D printing technology to address obsolete or hard-to-find automotive components in a quick and cost-effective manner.
“The technology from SPEE3D gave us a workable solution to a real challenge facing our company, the avoidance of delivery bottlenecks for older components,” commented Alisha Gray, Nissan Australia. “Metal 3D printing is no longer just a domain of science laboratories. We are seeing a very positive change in the way we can manufacture in the future.”
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