Continental opens new Additive Manufacturing competence centre
Powder removal from a part following Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) at Continental (Courtesy Continental AG)
Automotive manufacturing company Continental AG, headquartered in Hannover, Germany, has opened an Additive Manufacturing competence centre in the town of Karben, Germany. Under the leadership of its development and production service provider, Continental Engineering Services, the company stated that it plans to use the new centre to implement AM for production across all its divisions.
In addition to Additive Manufacturing technology, Continental Engineering Services’ Karben facility houses high-performance CNC machines, injection moulding and laser welding systems, and state-of-the-art electronics manufacturing for printed circuit board assembly. The combination of a variety of environmental testing facilities and small-series manufacturing technologies is said to create an ideal setting to enable the right manufacturing technology or combination of technologies to be selected for each task.
Stefan Kammann, Head of Business Segment Additive Design and Manufacturing within the Product Solutions division at Continental Engineering Services, commented, “We make 3D scans of the components, edit them followed by printing them with the desired material. For example, we are able to produce a high-quality metal part in place of a plastic part. Furthermore, design changes can be handled flexibly depending on the product. The process lowers production costs with shorter production times.”
Torsten Rauch, Karben Plant Manager, stated, “3D printing is becoming more and more important thanks to its many advantages. This is reciprocated by the ever-increasing demand for additively manufactured parts. With our competence centre in Karben we are now able to test technologies, develop processes and procedures and roll out our production worldwide.”
