Airwolf 3D Leads Desktop 3D Printing in Automotive Industry

Airwolf 3D Co-Founder Erick Wolf often describes his company as “a hot rod shop that builds 3D printers.” If you’ve ever visited Airwolf 3D, you know this is an accurate description. Most days, a project car sits in the middle of our warehouse, flanked by the shipping and RMA departments and mere feet away from racks holding the thousands of rolls of filament that we manufacture and sell every day.

But in addition to being complete car nuts (Airwolf 3D was, after all, born from Erick Wolf’s passion for cars), how has Airwolf 3D been involved with growing desktop 3D printing in the automotive industry? The simple answer is that we design our printers for industrial use. And with our machines’ ability to 3D print large ABS and polycarbonate parts for minimal cost makes Airwolf 3D the best — and really the only — choice of large-format desktop 3D printer when it comes to the high-performance technology and quality results demanded by the automotive industry. Check out some of our favorite automotive 3D printing projects.

1. Service King Gains Edge Over Competition With 3D-Printed Car Repairs

Service King, one of the top names in professional collision repair, unlocked the power of automotive 3D printing to deliver even better service to their customers. Always on a mission to streamline the automotive repair process, the automotive king pin has brought manufacturing in-house and employs Airwolf 3D AXIOM printers to print parts for repairing bumpers.

2. CVF Racing 3D Prints Custom Brackets for Discriminating Customers

CVF Racing designs and manufactures OEM-level quality parts like billet aluminum serpentine & v-belt pulleys, brackets and conversion kits. In this video, the shop shows how they use their Airwolf 3D HD 3D printer to print serpentine system brackets.

3. The 3D-Printed Hellcat Project by Airwolf 3D

Debuted at SEMA 2017, the “World’s Most 3D-Printed Hellcat” was a company project by the employees at Airwolf 3D (a.k.a.”The Wolfpack”). From our interns and sales people to Erick Wolf and his R&D team, numerous employees pitched in to design and 3D print custom parts for the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.

4. 3D-Printing Automotive Parts in Polypropylene

One of the game-changing moments for 3D printing in the automotive industry resulted from a large automotive customer who approached us and asked if our 3D printers could print in polypropylene. At the time, we hadn’t done extensive testing on the material. While its the most commonly-used plastic in cars, polypropylene is notoriously difficult to 3D-print because it has a high tendency to curl and warp while printing.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, the Airwolf 3D Wolfpack got to work and developed Wolfbite ULTRA, the 3D-printer bed adhesive formulated specifically for polypropylene. Wolfbite ULTRA, along with the release of our polypropylene filament, empowered automotive professionals to finally 3D print in polypropylene successfully.

5. Project Mustang 5.0 Breathes New Life Into Old ‘Stang’

While the “World’s Most 3D-Printed Hellcat” has been getting all the attention lately, a well-used Mustang 5.0 still remains one of the Wolfpack’s favorite project cars. Thanks to our AXIOM Series 3D printers, company Co-Founder Erick Wolf was able to repair a leaking heater core with a 3D-printed bypass pipe.

6. Printing Parts on Demand: A CV Boot in TPE

When an automotive customer came to us asking for a solution to 3D-printed custom CV boots, we delivered. Easily printed in flexible TPE for minimal cost, our 3D-printed CV Joint Boot demonstrates the ease of 3D-printing automotive parts on demand.

7. Saleen Accelerates Automotive Design Cycle with 3D Printing

One of the early adopters of 3D printing in automotive industry, Saleen has trusted Airwolf 3D printers for automotive prototyping. The automotive company even uses 3D printers to create small functional parts such as window louvers, exhaust tips, butterfly mechanisms, light bezels and more.

Do You Use Airwolf 3D printers in your shop?

We’d love to hear from you! Send photos and story ideas to info@airwolf3d.com or be sure to tag us or include the hashtag #Airwolf3D in your social media posts!

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