3-D printing accelerates Honda Pilot development - Automotive News
DETROIT -- Automakers are again taking a run at accelerating vehicle development, this time with an assist from 3-D printing. The latest example comes from Honda, whose just-launched 2016 Pilot is the product of a new computer-driven process in which the automaker eliminated hand-built prototypes. The approach cut "several months" from the nearly three-year effort from when the new Pilot was envisioned to the start of mass production, said Jeff Tomko, president of Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, the assembly complex in Lincoln where the... The new Pilot was developed "in a virtual world," Tomko said at a briefing here. In the last decade, Toyota accelerated development in a push to launch a barrage of new models around the globe, part of a drive to expand sales and pass General Motors as the world's largest automaker by sales volume. 1 Japanese automaker grew rapidly but its breakneck pace also brought quality problems, among them the accelerator pedal and floor mat issues that were tied to the company's sudden-acceleration crisis in 2010. In response, Toyota reversed course... Ford and GM use 3-D printing extensively to test part designs in development. In developing the Pilot, Honda used 3-D printers to quickly test a new center-console design that might eliminate electrical interference, Tomko said. Source: www.autonews.com
