OPERATIONS
Additive manufacturing has been part of BMW Group’ s production toolkit since 1991. Over three decades, its role has changed from producing prototype parts for concept cars to becoming a core maintenance and engineering strategy across the automaker’ s global factories.
At BMW’ s dedicated Additive Manufacturing Campus in Oberschleißheim, near Munich, more than 300,000 parts were printed in 2023 alone. Across the wider global production network, spanning plants in Spartanburg in the United States, multiple German sites and facilities in Asia, a further 100,000 printed parts are produced every year.
The technology now supports everything from bespoke orthoses to large-scale robot grippers used on press lines. For plant engineers and maintenance teams, its importance is growing quickly.
Lighter tooling Jens Ertel, Head of BMW Additive Manufacturing, explains:“ We are able to quickly, economically and flexibly produce our own production aids and handling robots, which we can individually adapt to specific requirements at any time, as well as being able to optimise their weight. Less weight allows higher speeds on the production line, shorter cycle times and reduced costs.”
The link between weight reduction and maintenance is direct.
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