Rivian is growing its 3D printing operation across the company, and that includes a new bay of printers at the Normal, Illinois plant where employees can print parts on demand. Jared Beck, Rivian’s head of additive manufacturing, walked CNBC through the expansion and said the goal is “democratizing 3D printing for the entire company.”
Rivian has spent more than $5 million on printers so far, and materials now cost about $1.7 million a year. Beck says the machines usually pay for themselves within a year and the savings are “well in the millions,” but what Rivian cares about most is speed, since a part that used to take weeks from a supplier can now be ready in days or even hours.
The new hardware includes printers that can make flexible silicone parts. Rivian already prints motor models for fluid testing, screw guides and stamping press inserts, plus a few production parts like the trim pieces that filled gaps on some early builds.
Rivian isn’t the only one doing this. Ford has more than 200 printers in its program and expects to have 3D labs at more than 23 plants by the end of the year, and GM uses 135 printed components on the Cadillac Celestiq.
Rivian has always had to move faster than the legacy automakers with a lot less money, so turning a weeks-long supplier wait into a same-day print makes a ton of sense for a company still ramping production in Normal.
Owners already know how useful a printer can be, judging by the R2 projects the community keeps putting out. Now Rivian’s own engineers on the line get that same on-demand access, and I’d expect more printed tooling to turn up as R2 output grows.
