SLM Solutions and Mahle collaborate to offer AM for automotive part production
December 21, 2021
SLM Solutions, Lübeck, Germany, has announced that it will collaborate with Mahle Group, Stuttgart, Germany, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, to push metal Additive Manufacturing in the automotive sector. By joining forces, both companies hope to improve the speed and quality of automotive components in both prototype and serial production.
Mahle will use SLM metal AM machines to additively manufacture parts from aluminium and stainless steel alloys, which are resilient, corrosion resistant, and topology optimised to reduce overall weight.
“3D printing for mobility just makes sense,” commented Sam O’Leary, CEO of SLM Solutions. “Our cooperation with Mahle revolutionises the production of automotive components by making them better, stronger, and lighter, not to mention more climate-neutral.”
Mahle states that its AM centre in Stuttgart will play a crucial part in strengthening its role as the leading development partner for OEMs by revolutionising the pace of prototype production. The new centre will reportedly reduce production time from several months to just a few days, thereby simultaneously accelerating the drive towards climate-neutral mobility. The focus will rest primarily on components from the fields of thermal management, mechatronics, and electronics.
Michael Frick, Chairman of the Mahle Management Board (ad interim) and CFO, stated, “The development of new systems and components has to be much faster today than it was a few years ago, especially when it comes to solutions for sustainable CO2-neutral drive systems. With our new 3D printing centre and SLM Solutions as a technology partner, Mahle is once again stepping up the pace in its strategic fields – for example, e-mobility.”
It was stated that an estimated 120 SLM Solutions systems for automotive applications are already running at OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers around the world.
