Bosch invests €6 million in metal Additive Manufacturing centre for volume automotive applications
March 19, 2025
Robert Bosch GmbH has invested almost €6 million in its Additive Manufacturing facility in Nuremberg, Germany. As part of the expansion, the company has installed a new NXG XII 600 Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing machine from Nikon SLM Solutions.
The main aim of the investment is to enable faster component production and cut the time to market. “We want to be faster than with traditional manufacturing processes and use this technology to get products to market more quickly,” stated Jörg Luntz, Technical Plant Manager. “Even today, only a few companies can produce technology on an industrial scale the way Bosch does. We’re now going one step further, taking volume production in metal 3D printing to the automotive level.”
The new NXG XII 600 will accelerate development cycles, especially for metal parts, which can take a long time to make using conventional manufacturing processes. The company has stated that the new machine can manufacture up to 5x faster than its previous Additive Manufacturing machines.
“Bosch remains committed to Germany as an industrial location and is investing large sums of money here. By introducing new technologies in our plants, we are securing considerable sales potential,” stated Klaus Mäder, a member of the Bosch Mobility sector board responsible for operations, including all plants worldwide.
This opens the door to completely new opportunities and possibilities – in the automotive sector, but also in numerous other industries such as energy and aviation.
“By making the manufacture of metal parts faster and more productive, this new facility will increase our competitiveness,” stated Alexander Weichsel, the commercial plant manager in Nuremberg. “Using the 3D printer to manufacture components not only increases sustainability in production, but also enables Bosch to respond flexibly to fluctuations in batch sizes and offer everything from a single source.”
Bosch highlighted the design and production of a typical engine block as an example of where Additive Manufacturing has a huge advantage. When producing the engine block with conventional manufacturing technologies, it can take up to three years from design to volume production; completing the casting mold for the engine block alone can take up to eighteen months. Because the design data can be transmitted directly to an Additive Manufacturing machine, Bosch explains, the first engine block can be built in a few days.
At full capacity, Bosch stated that the Nuremberg facility will be able to produce around 10,000 kg of metal parts in under a year.
