Additive manufacturing (AM) for full-scale production at the part quantities major automakers see is still a way off. However, General Motors sees that day coming, and is getting ready by seeking “pathfinder” additive manufactured parts that will allow the company to start facing and answering the questions that come from applying 3D printing for production. Far off though it might be, AM for automotive production is also near enough and viable enough that the parts GM found did not have to be subsidized. The company’s 2022 Cadillac Blackwing V-Series cars — the most powerful Cadillac models ever introduced — are also the first GM vehicles to use AM at production scale. The manual-transmission versions of each of the V-Series models has three functional components made through 3D printing, and AM paid its way in each case. It offered GM the most cost-effective way to manufacture each of these parts.
