Integration of new rapid manufacturing technologies for purpose of prototyping and preseries at Valeo thermal systems

Abstract

The last three decades have seen the emergence and evolution of new manufacturing technologies that offer the benefits of complexity, cost and especially speed. The most notable process is additive manufacturing, which involves the construction of an object layer by layer from its numerical model, the revenue it generates has exploded, from \euro 1 billion in 2009 to over \euro 4 billion in 2014 according to the Wohler report 2015. For a company like Valeo which invests heavily in research and development, it is essential to take advantage of these new technologies for their prototyping needs. Heat exchanger is one of the leading products of Valeo THS, for a new design of its plates, it takes up to 44 \euro k and 8 weeks to have the first functional parts using conventional technologies. While, with a judicious combination of new electromagnetic or hydraulic forming technologies, with tooling produced by additive manufacturing, costs can be reduced by half. However, the new design rules, still unclear do not allow to improve production lead times.