How Rivian, Ford and GM are using 3D printing to reduce costs

Detroit — automakers including ford motor and Rivian Automotive is leaning toward a new type of manufacturing line: 3D printing.

Manufacturers say it helps reduce costs and increase speed. Although the technology has been around for decades, the automotive industry has become highly commoditized, with 3D printers being used to create everything from vehicle parts and accessories to tools in assembly plants and test units in research and development labs.

“At this point, we have no choice but to scale up and start using it across all of Rivian’s factions,” Jared Beck, Rivian’s head of additive manufacturing, told CNBC during a tour of the automaker’s vast 3D printing operations outside Detroit. “We are democratizing 3D printing across the company.”

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, allows you to create three-dimensional objects from digital designs by applying material layer by layer, much like traditional printers apply ink to paper. Instead of ink, machines use different materials such as plastics, composites, ceramics, and even metals.

Printers can range from a few hundred dollars for hobby-like equipment to hundreds of thousands of dollars for specialized equipment, depending on the size of the product being manufactured and the materials needed. Powders and resins can be used to manufacture individual parts or batches of hundreds of small parts.

Rivian said it has spent more than $5 million on the 3D printing machine, and the cost of materials needed for the work has increased to about $1.7 million a year.

Although expensive, the machines typically pay for themselves within a year, Beck said. He said the technology reduces tooling costs for suppliers, streamlines logistics costs and reduces part production time from weeks to days, if not hours.

“[The savings]are in the millions, but speed is important to Rivian,” Beck said.

The all-electric vehicle company’s latest 3D printing expansion includes adding new machinery that can make flexible silicone parts and installing a machine bay at its Normal, Illinois, factory so employees can print parts on demand.

“3D printing needs to be readily available so that all engineers can create parts and get them in their hands as quickly as possible,” Beck said.

Rivian also used this technology in its electric motor models for fluid testing and in some production parts, such as press screw guides for tooling and press inserts, and trim pieces to fill gaps in early builds.

Similar efforts are underway at larger, more established automakers like Ford and its crosstown rivals. general motorshas been using 3D printing for many years, including in large-scale assembly plants.

Instead of having a fleet of 3D printing machines like Rivian, Ford has additive manufacturing departments at many of its factories to produce and distribute the parts it needs. That includes a new vending machine for 3D-printed parts for F-150 pickup truck production near the company’s Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters.

“Installing the vending machines will give all team leaders access,” said Gregory Foresi, a Ford mechanical engineer who ran Ford’s 3D printing lab at the plant from 2024 until last month. “We can now maintain inventory without having to have tons of parts rolling around in the lab, which is huge.”

Foresi used about 20 machines to print thousands of tools. Some of them are employee-designed, including torque bit sockets, hood jackers, and hand tools for smoothing adhesives.

Employees can use the app to request printing of specific auto parts and tools. Ford’s 3D printing team helps develop parts and decide what to produce next, as the machining time to build different parts can span hours or days, if not weeks.

Foresi said that by creating tools with 3D printing, automakers can now design their own tools as needed, get them more quickly, and often at a lower cost.

Ford also used 3D printed parts to help continue production. For example, Foresi said large machined wheels are needed to maintain assembly line production, but the company has been able to 3D print parts until permanent replacements are available from suppliers.

“They weren’t performing very well and weren’t really a replacement for what we were trying to buy, but they kept the plant running,” Foresi said.

Ford said it plans to have 3D labs in more than 23 factories by the end of this year. The company said it has more than 200 machines in its current 3D printing program and has additional printers outside of the official program.

In addition to R&D and in its factories, GM uses 3D printed parts for some low-volume products, including recently expanding its use of industrial Stratasys printers, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars based on use case, training and certification.

The Detroit automaker is using 135 3D-printed components in its custom Cadillac Celestiq and other components for its Cadillac Blackwing sedan performance sedan, including a unique medallion on the manual shifter knob.

Fadi Avro, senior global director of automotive and mobility at 3D printing company Stratasys, said GM is a great example of how companies can “standardize and then scale” 3D printing.

“The material properties have improved significantly, which has improved the use case,” he said, noting that the company works with virtually every major automaker. “From a product perspective, we need to make technology faster and more accessible in an economic sense.”