from the You-get-one-and-you-get-one-and-you-get-one,-too dept.
Mass production of individualized products:
"Right now, individualization in the automotive industry basically means preparing every vehicle for every possible version and then adding the specific features each customer has ordered at the end of the line. This means, for example, that every car has to be fitted with the entire wiring harness," says project manager Professor Thomas Otto. Professor Reinhard Baumann, who works at Fraunhofer ENAS and is in charge of coordinating the Lighthouse Project, explains the new concept: "By combining traditional manufacturing methods with emerging digital technologies and production processes, we have found a way to integrate product individualization within mass production environments. Our emphasis right from the start has been on product and production reliability—but we still have a long way to go."
[...] The basic concept is simple: Just like an inkjet printer in the office, the researchers use inkjet and dispensing technologies to print geometric patterns. But instead of using colored inks—in other words, inks that have the functionality of "color"—they use inks with functionalities such as electrical conductivity, semiconductivity and insulation. This technology can be used to create both single-layer and multilayer systems. Even sensors and transistors are feasible. "And I can do all this not only on smooth, level surfaces such as a sheet of paper but also, using robots, on three-dimensional curved workpieces such as deep-drawn car doors," says Baumann. The second digital manufacturing technology that comes into play is the laser. Researchers at the six Fraunhofer Institutes have combined the two methods. As a result, the laser beam follows exactly the line taken by the printer, allowing it, for example, to cure previously printed photopolymers or sinter nanoparticle inks. Numerous robots are already used for assembly purposes on the shop floor, yet the new method is very different. "We have achieved orders-of-magnitude improvements in the spatial resolution of the printing with line widths down to approximately 50 micrometers," says Baumann.
The teams at the Fraunhofer Institutes are focusing initially on sensors and circuitry.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by datapharmer on Wednesday June 03 2020, @11:11AM (6 children)
May repairability be damned... Fender bender? Sorry it tore up the embedded conducting ink so you'll need to buy a new car. Don't worry there is a Carvana vending machine just up the street.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @11:20AM (5 children)
This article sounds like 3D printing hype. You wouldn't download a car, would you?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @11:43AM
Agreed, there has been a lot of 3D printing hype. But there is also some real progress as well. Here's an example of additive manufacturing (AM) I saw recently in a machining trade magazine,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksV0czpsAJE [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8at_Rxz_pw [youtube.com]
Company makes small 2-stroke engines and now uses a completely different geometry to cool the cylinder--lattice cooling with built in ductwork, instead of traditional cooling fins (which were cast).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @02:56PM (3 children)
I wouldn't use it in a car, but if can definitely see this technology being used for cellphones, tablets, handheld games, and other portable computing devices. If it gets good enough, conventional circuit boards could become a thing of the past, and repairability won't necessarily be worse - but it probably will be unless you have a $$$$$ proprietary tool from the manufacturer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:03PM
Replaceability would improve though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:46PM (1 child)
> a $$$$$ proprietary tool from the manufacturer
Can't you just print the special tool? I thought that was the point of a 3D printer in every house.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:49PM
Sure, if the company that makes the stuff tell you how, or you design your own.
(Score: 4, Informative) by EvilSS on Wednesday June 03 2020, @12:58PM (1 child)
I can tell you from personal experience with both a Chevy and a Ford vehicle, this isn't true and hasn't been for quite a while. Both vehicles I've looked into adding factory options (not dealer options, those do tend to come pre-wired for obvious reasons) and found out I'd need to either replace part of the wiring harness or DIY the wiring in myself. The penny pinchers in accounting figured this out already.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @01:57PM
A stereo shop wanted to charge $300 for a wiring harness to install a stereo in a truck. I told them to F.O. and did it myself. The factory harness already had the wiring for a stereo including speaker wires. They were just dangling there not plugged in to anything since it came with no radio. It was plug and play after looking at the wiring diagram. Another car (Ford Crown Vic) has an empty socket in the fusebox for a flasher unit. If you plug one in and hit the highbeams the headlamps flash left/right, it's set up for police cruisers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by meustrus on Wednesday June 03 2020, @02:42PM
This sounds like a great way to never have a fleet-wide recall. No problem will ever be reproducible beyond more than a handful of vehicles. Some configurations will inevitably cause untested edge cases that break some key functionality.
If I had any regulatory authority, I'd make them re-certify the safety of every single possible vehicle configuration. Safety certification is meaningless if your configuration includes unauditable changes to the electrical system.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:52PM (3 children)
If you don't get the joke, buy a German car and you will.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 03 2020, @04:29PM (2 children)
Dammit. My whole time in Germany my friends only owned and drove Citroen "Entes" ("ducks"), so I don't get the joke.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2020, @02:19AM (1 child)
Electrical systems in German cars are always overly complicated and flaky. You WILL get an electrical problem with a German car, and it WILL be very expensive to repair.
I joked with a German woman (client poc) that her Volkswagen was going to have electrical problems. She said what car do YOU drive, an American model?? expecting to "catch" me in owning a car just of out nationalism (like her), but I told her "Japanese" -- Honda. I laughed when very soon after (matter of few months at most) her VW went kaput with a serious electrical problem. She bought a new car: a Japanese car.
Although from personal experience, I can say Hondas are not that reliable anymore. Bordering on junky, actually. Toyota is still solid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2020, @02:31PM
Subaru is my preference in Japanese cars. Their small SUVs are very nice, especially if you have to deal with sorry roads and snow.