3D component printing comes to the truck industry

Replacement parts for trucks produced by 3D printing to order at a local dealership are now a reality for operators of older Mercedes-Benz models.

Replacement plastic components such as covers, spacers, ducts and clamps are printed as spare parts by state-of-the-art 3D printers based on the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) printing process, in a process first developed by the company for producing prototype components.

The dealers are said to benefit by carrying a reduced parts inventory, while customers gain by having otherwise ‘slow-moving’ parts produced while they wait rather than being shipped over from a central warehouse.

Mercedes itself no longer needs to get suppliers to produce small amounts of individual components for vehicles which have long gone out of production: they can instead be printed as required by a local dealer.

Meanwhile, Volvo Group subsidiary Renault Trucks has produced metal additive printed parts for a truck engine, claiming that the technique has enabled an engine weight reduction of 25 per cent.

Renault Trucks ‘virtually designed’ an entire engine DTI 5 four-cylinder engine that could be built using 3D printing, and also trialled 3D-printed rocker arms and camshaft bearing caps in an actual engine which was successfully bench-tested for 600 hours.

3D printing frees engine designers from the constraints of casting and machining which usually apply when a component is shaped, as material is simply added layer-upon-layer.

Renault project manager Damien Lemasson said: “This procedure is a source of disruptive technology for the engines of tomorrow, which will be lighter and more functional, thereby offering optimal performance.”

In the case of the four-cylinder virtual prototype engine, 3D printing enabled a component reduction of 25 per cent (200 parts), with consequent advantages in production time, reliability and 120 kg in weight.