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700 HP piston from the 3D printer
Porsche, the mechanical engineering company Trumpf and Mahle are producing the first high-performance aluminum pistons using a 3D printer.
700 HP piston from the 3D printer
The pistons from the 3D printer have already been successfully tested on an engine test bench for the Porsche 911 GT2 RS. While the performance potential of the standard forged piston was exhausted, it is conceivable that the 700 hp Porsche engine's performance could be increased by 30 hp while simultaneously increasing efficiency.
The new process offers the possibility of implementing a so-called bionic design. Following the example of nature, such as the human skeleton, material is only used in stressed areas and the structure of the piston is adapted to this load. This saves material and makes the 3D printed piston lighter by up to 20 percent in weight compared to its conventionally manufactured counterpart, while at the same time being more rigid.
The basis for the new manufacturing process is a special aluminum alloy from Mahle, which has long been used successfully in cast pistons and is atomized into a fine powder. Printing is done using the so-called Laser Metal Fusion process (LMF): The aluminum powder is melted in a certain layer thickness using a laser beam, a new layer of powder is applied and the piston is built up layer by layer. The 3D printing specialist Trumpf creates the piston blanks in around 1,200 layers in around 12 hours.