Safety Critical Auto Part Created by Additive Manufacturing

Metal binding jet technology has been used for a safety critical automotive part and recognized in the 2024 Powder Metallurgy (PM) Design Excellence Awards.

The part, a seatbelt pillar adjustable guide loop used in the all-electric Cadillac CELESTIQ by General Motors, is GM’s first safety-related 3D printed metal part, shared John Roth, vice president, global Cadillac, General Motors, on LinkedIn. 

“Bringing CELESTIQ to life sparked countless innovations, including 115 3D-printed parts. The team used binder-jet technology (BJT) to create the vehicle’s seatbelt pillar adjustable guide loop out of stainless steel, resulting in GM’s first safety-related 3D printed metal part,” Roth wrote in the post.

The Metal Powders Industry Federation recognized contract manufacturer Azoth with the Award of Distinction in the Automotive—Electric Vehicle Category for Metal AM components for using Markforged’s Metal binding jet technology to make the part.

According to Markforged, this technology uses the similar powder-spreading methods as selective laser sintering (SLS) but instead of a laser uses a liquid binding agent to produce parts. Metal parts are then sintered. In the case of GM’s stainless-steel seatbelt part, after sintering the part is polished and plated with a multi-layer nickel-chrome to improve corrosion performance and scratch resistance. 

Shai Terem, president and CEO of Markforged, told the Rapid+TCT 2024 audience during the “Executive Perspectives” keynote panel that his company helped create the first-ever critical safety part in a vehicle. He also thanked Azoth on LinkedIn “for partnering with Markforged for this amazing journey into the future of manufacturing with Binder Jetting!”

Azoth’s partnership with Markforged has yielded other firsts, such as “the first metal 3D-printed production component in the Cadillac, on their last manual transmission, the Blackwing,”  explained Cody Cochran, general manager of Azoth, in the below video. Speaking of the binder jet technology, he said that “depending on the part size, we can make hundreds to thousands per day—we’re doing that every single day throughout the automotive, defense, and medical industries.”

Ross Adams, Americas business leader for metal binder jetting at Markforged, told Design News at Rapid that producing GM’s first metal 3D-printed safety critical part and the award is a “signal to industry that additive manufacturing has made it to serial production.”