We are standing in a factory within a factory, on a footprint that is the size of a village, owned by a brand that is synonymous with this city.
Outside, Ingolstadt is still. Butbeyond the front gate of Audi AG’s headquarters, there is the kind of buzz that emanates from a site that, in the distance, assembles some of its most popular models. Back there, I am told, a huge production line is putting together the Audi Q6 E-tron, Audi A6 E-tron, Audi A3 and Audi Q2. Such is the scale of this place; to reach those assembly lines, you might need to ride up to 20 minutes on a shuttle bus. Fortunately, our destination is only a 150-metre walk away.
That is the length of the internal tool shop. We walk through the centre with rows of robotic arms to our right and industrial scanning systems to our left. Varying parts of car bodies can be spotted too. And, in the far corner, that factory within a factory.
Audi’s Metal 3D Printing Center was established a decade ago to better understand additive manufacturing (AM) technology. Here, the Audi team would focus on Selective Laser Melting – and so installed an EOS M290, EOS M400, Additive Industries MetalFabG2 and a Nikon SLM 280 – while in Wolfsburg, their colleagues at Volkswagen would take the lead on metal binder jetting technology.
