MAN Truck & Bus, the Munich-based, main producer of business autos, has collaborated with BASF spin-out Replique, a digital manufacturing platform additionally primarily based in Germany, to 3D print spare components. Leveraging Replique’s world community of on-demand manufacturing companions, MAN was in a position to supply the bronze manifold for a marine engine that was out-of-stock, with the casting mould for the half additionally unavailable.

MAN is a subsidiary of Traton Group, itself a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group (Traton was previously referred to as Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG). Notably, in 2021, Volkswagen introduced its objective to 3D print 100,000 components per 12 months by 2025.

Utilizing the bronze alloy m4p Brz10 and powder mattress fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM), MAN went from its preliminary inquiry to receiving its first spare components in lower than two months. In response to Replique, the Central Materials Expertise division at MAN demonstrated that the components printed in m4p Brz10 outperformed the unique in tensile checks. The components’ subsequent demonstration of success in real-world eventualities resulted in MAN’s ordering 10 extra models.

Replique’s distinction from different digital stock platforms is underscored by its capacity to reinforce technical efficiency past the unique half, notably by means of the utilization of m4p Brz10. In an interview final summer season, Replique Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer Henrike Wonneberger described to me how prioritizing supplies qualification is on the middle of Replique’s focus.

This announcement additionally reinforces the argument I made in an article from October, about how the subsequent part of AM’s scale-up might be largely pushed by the growing demand for automated high quality management of spare components sourcing for transportation-related sectors. As I famous in that story, the state of the know-how supporting AM-centered distributed manufacturing nonetheless makes such distributed manufacturing extra of a dream than a actuality.

However, an organization like Replique working with an organization like MAN is exactly the kind of enterprise relationship that may function a precursor to the widespread deployment of distributed 3D printing. The truth that MAN and Replique are already within the means of engaged on extra printed spares hints on the chance that in 2024, the AM sector will carry distributed manufacturing of on-demand spare components even nearer to actuality.