Case Study: Ford Motor Company achieves production-quality, faster 3D manufacturing with Carbon’s CLIP technology

Ford Motor Company on the Road to 3D Manufacturing

Ford Motor Company faced the challenge of turning 3D printing from a rapid-prototyping tool into a method for producing final, road-ready parts: conventional additive technologies were slow, produced anisotropic and less durable parts, and offered too few materials to meet automotive thermal and mechanical demands. After seeing Carbon’s Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology in 2014, Ford’s additive manufacturing team pursued an early access program to evaluate whether Carbon’s approach could overcome those barriers.

Using Carbon’s CLIP-based device, Ford rapidly produced isotropic, injection-mold-quality polymer parts—printing elastomer grommets for the Focus Electric in less than a third of the time versus traditional 3D methods, accelerating design iterations for a damping bumper on the Transit Connect, and quickly creating an oil-connector solution that avoided major vehicle redesigns. Carbon’s platform and materials support also expanded Ford’s materials research (including nano-reinforced resins), shortened design cycle time, and moved the automaker closer to cost- and time-saving production use of additive manufacturing.

Ford Motor Company

Ellen Lee

Team Leader