When the new Audi E-Tron GT was introduced, the Audi Sport Bôllinger Höfe location in Heilbronn, Germany, rapidly needed almost 200 new tools, jigs and fixtures for its production. Designing these tools takes time and outsourcing their production can sometimes mean lead times of weeks and even months. This is where design automation and 3D printing has delivered an unparalleled workflow for Audi Sport.
The key production focus at the Audi Sport Böllinger Höfe factory is on the high-performance Audi R8 and the fully electric Audi E-Tron GT, marquee names from the renowned German car manufacturer. On the assembly line, the bare cages come in on robotised platforms and are mounted to a top rail. This train of exclusive cars then passes many stations where order-specific parts are installed.
Every station has a limited time to assemble parts and install them onto the car. This is why an optimised and efficient workflow is crucial for the mechanics. Custom tools, jigs and fixtures play a huge role in making the work for the mechanics much faster, easier and ergonomic.
“We produce nearly 800 tools and jigs and fixtures for our factory here,” said Cem Guelaylar, 3D Printing Expert at Audi Sport. “Outsourcing can take months, depending on the supplier and the process. 3D printing helped us to get these tools in a very short time. When workers come to us ask for a fixture to assemble the cars, it takes one day to get this tool in their hand.”
Different tools for different applications
There are custom tools that help aligning parts during installation. For example for installing a roof, or the logos on the outside of the car. This increases the consistency and quality of the final cars while saving minutes per car. Quality control tools make sure all the cars meet the highest standards from Audi. These custom jigs are mounted to parts of the car to measure alignment and tolerances. For example, Audi Sport created a custom jig to focus the head up display (HUD) on the dashboard. The jig uses two lasers that are projected on the installed HUD. When the lasers align it means the reflective glass is installed properly.
Many parts need to be assembled before they are installed. Tubes added to a central fluid plate, cables and heatsinks to a central control unit, the list goes on. Working on these parts by simply laying them on the work desk makes the task very difficult. This is where Audi Sport uses many fixtures in their factory. These fixtures hold the parts in place for easy and fast assembly. Not only do these fixtures save hours, it has a big impact on the consistency of production. Many of these fixtures are also designed to have a positive impact on ergonomics for the worker. For example by holding tools in a better direction for working.
Designing parts in minutes instead of hours
When the new E-Tron GT was introduced, a significant challenge arose to create the nearly 200 different tools, jigs and fixtures that would be required. And Audi needed them fast to start production. Designing these tools cost a lot of time and expertise. They need to be precise, user-friendly and easy to produce. trinckle’s fixturemate software is specifically designed to create fixtures for assembly. A part is imported and set in the right angle. Then the fixture is created by adding a base plate, places where the part needs supports and holes so it can be mounted to a desk. There is also a library of off-the-shelf tools such as clamps. The software is user friendly and while designing tools can take hours in traditional CAD software, it only needs 10-20 minutes in fixturemate.
“When we started to produce the Audi E Tron GT full electric car here we needed nearly 200 fixtures and tools. fixturemate helped us in a short time to bring a lot of fixtures,” Guelaylar noted. “We put our parts in fixturemate which enabled us to bring the fixture out of this software in minutes. Normally, in classic construction, we would need up to four hours, depending on the size of the part. We can bring trainees and show them how to use the fixturemate software, and they can directly work with this software and bring the fixtures in a short time.”
The benefits of 3D printing at Audi Sport
Not only did Audi Sport need the parts to be designed fast, they also required them to be produced in a very short time. Outsourcing production of tools is expensive and can also take many weeks to months. This is why Audi started with a 3D printing room. Several printers such as the Ultimaker S5 enabled Audi Sport to meet its tooling needs. Tools can now be printed in a day at a fraction of the cost. There is no need to request quotes, brief suppliers and wait for parts to be produced and delivered. When a part doesn’t meet the requirements, it can directly be improved and reprinted.
The right material for the job
Most of the fixtures are printed using Tough PLA. This material has similar flex and strength properties like ABS, but prints very easily without the challenges of ABS. There are also tools printed for the protection of car parts using TPU95a. The soft material is perfect to prevent parts from being damaged.
Thanks to UltiMaker’s ecosystem, Audi Sport also has access to hundreds of third-party materials. These materials often have very specific properties. One of these materials that Audi Sport uses is ESD-safe PLA for fixtures that handle electronic components. Preparing 3D prints with these materials is made effortless using Ultimaker Cura as the printing profiles are available for free in the marketplace.
“We use Tough PLA because it’s cheap and it’s easy to use. We use TPU mostly to protect car parts. We also use ESD safe materials and sometimes ABS or PETG. 3D printing is, for us, very fast and helpful for our factory and our workers,” Guelayler continued.
By 3D printing its tools Audi has reduced tool production cost over 80% while delivering these tools to the workers in a day instead of several weeks. On top of that, by using fixturemate, Audi Sport has also made fixture design easy and fast.
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