In the summer of 2018, TCT spent a day at BMW Group's former Additive Manufacturing Center in Germany. A topologically optimised metal fixture for the folding mechanism of the BMW i8 Roadster had just become the latest poster child for AM in production, and a MINI Yours Customised project had proven its knack for mass personalisation. Meanwhile, BMW was gearing up for a move to a new €10 million Additive Manufacturing Campus (AMC) just north of Munich. As our then editor put it in his report, it was The Ultimate Printing Machine.
Since opening in 2020, more than 1.6 million parts have been manufactured at the AMC, with more than 100,000 components produced at vehicle plants worldwide annually. Leading the effort is BMW Group's Head of Additive Manufacturing Timo Göbel (TG) who came on board last year and is driving BMW's plans to take AM 'to the next industrial level'.
TCT caught up with Göbel to talk about the growth of AM across BMW Group's network, the integration of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) for large-scale components, and why automotive offers the perfect model to demonstrate AM at scale.
TCT: Timo, if we were to walk into the AMC today, what would we see? Paint us a picture.
TG: You would see a very modern, luxury, very cool, very clean production site. The AMC brings together production, pre-development, and qualification and industrialisation of additive manufacturing under one roof and under one responsibility. It is purpose built for AM. In the past, we were decentralised and had to walk between levels and buildings. Now everything is on one site, very modern, very clean, very straightforward. So, we follow the process of the powder from creating to printing to post-processing.
TCT: How does the work you're doing at the AMC transfer across other global plants in BMW's production network?
TG: We are recognised as a centre of competence, so we are leading the global network of AM. We help to qualify, we look for standardisation, we use the same digital tools together, we provide training, and that's how we can spread things out either to our customers, our internal customers, or to the production network. So, we feel responsible for AM in the global BMW Group network.
