Parts for the Hyundai i20

A vehicle outfitting company came to us with an urgent problem – 500 cars waiting at the port for delivery, held up by a single plastic dashboard part.

There was no way to hand a car over without it, and every day of storage at the port cost real money. Two options were on the table:

1. Find a supplier in China and order, with a month of lead time.
2. Model the file in 3D, print it here in Israel, and put the part through finishing and paint – which is what happened.

Within a few hours the file was ready, and the next day, after checks, it went into production at our facility.

There are now 500 cars on the road with 3D printed parts in them, and anyone who does not know about the project would never notice.

The arithmetic that decided it

The problem here was not an engineering one, it was economic. 500 cars standing at the port accrue storage costs every day, and the alternative – ordering the part from a supplier in China – meant about a month of waiting. In that situation a part that costs several times more per unit is still far cheaper than the alternative.

How it was done

1. Measuring and 3D modelling the missing part – within hours
2. Fit checks on one car
3. Into production at our facility the next day
4. Finishing and paint in the car’s interior colour

What this says about spare parts

This is exactly the case where additive manufacturing replaces stock: instead of holding parts in a warehouse or waiting on a supply chain, you hold a file and print when you need to. See 3D printing production.

A similar project of your own?

Send us a file or a description of the problem and you will get a recommendation on technology, material and timescale – talk to an engineer. See also product design and development and 3D printing production.