KWM were approached by a global automotive OEM to produce show and demonstration vehicles for their concept and motorsport marketing programmes.
The Challenge
- Final design data was very late being finalised due to motorsport’s continuous development cycles.
- The first car was required in 6 weeks to coincide with marketing events calendar.
- There was significant cost pressure, further complicated by the low-volume nature of the product.
The Requirements
- Life-like re-creation of current race cars.
- Rapid turnaround from design through to manufacture and assembly.
- Complex installations in multiple international locations.
The Approach
- The external CAD data was imported in to KWM’s CAD system.
- From only external vehicle CAD data (providing body shape and dimensions) a new internal vehicle platform was designed from scratch by KWM’s engineers.
- KWM’s internal additive manufacturing capabilities were heavily used for tooling, jigs & fixtures, and end-use components. This significantly sped up manufacture time and reduced tooling costs.
- Each car was fully assembled in-house 5 days.
The Results
- The low tooling costs, facilitated by additive manufacturing, provided low unit cost and flexible repeatability.
- Cars were successfully installed at multiple show locations.
- KWM are now a trusted supplier, continuing to support the client 4 years on.