BMW (Munich / Germany; www.bmwgroup.com) is to invest more than EUR 10m to concentrate its additive manufacturing activities at a new facility in Oberschleißheim / Germany, near Munich. At the “Additive Manufacturing Campus”, technologies for plastics and metals will be evaluated and developed to maturity for series production, said Jens Ertel, the future campus director. From early 2019, there will be up to 80 employees and more than 30 industrial manufacturing systems for processing metals and plastics at the 6,000 m² site.

According to BMW, the facility will function like a pilot plant, driving new technologies and then making them available to the group. The focus will be on parts manufacturing for prototype construction, series production as well as customised vehicle components.

The latest example of using additive processes to generate BMW parts is an aluminium alloy component for the soft-top roof of the new “i8 Roadster”, of which several thousand will be produced each year. The metal component weighs less than the normally used injection-moulded plastic part, and is much more rigid.

Decentralised manufacturing with 3D printers spread across the company’s international production network is conceivable in the long term. BMW is already printing prototype parts at its plants in Spartanburg, South Carolina / USA, Shenyang, Liaoning / China and Rayong / Thailand. On top of that, the group invested in 3D printing specialist Carbon (Redwood City, California / USA; www.carbon3d.com) in 2016.