Technical Paper
Additive Manufacturing Experimental Infill Testing and Optimization for Automotive Lightweighting
2019-04-02
2019-01-1275
Lightweighting of vehicles in the automotive industry is one of the most prevalent trends currently underway; influenced by government regulation and consumer demand. The reduction in vehicle mass of the next generation automobile offers increased dynamic performance, reduced fuel consumption, and potential component cost reduction. Development in composite materials, numerical methods, part consolidation, and advanced high strength metals represent a selection of the strategies being utilized for lightweighting. Additive manufacturing (AM) is a family of rapidly developing technology that is seeing use in the automotive industry both in the development and production stages. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) printed parts offer designers increased freedom, at a reduced weight, in comparison to conventionally fabricated parts as internal sections that are hollow, sparsely filled, or composed of a lattice structure can be realized instead of the traditional solid infill matrix.