At present, the first step in the shape design of automobiles from drawings to entities is to use sand to make models, from a one-to-ten miniature model to a one-to-one solid model.

It all depends on the sculptor's sculpting one by one, because after the finished product is produced, it is necessary to use a three-dimensional scanning system to scan it into the computer, establish a data mold library, and accumulate data for the subsequent stamping machine tools.

Therefore, an ordinary sculpture must be raised to an industrial-level precision, which requires a very high level for the sculptor, and there can be no mistakes in the whole sculpture process.

Because any millimeter error will lead to the loss of previous efforts, which makes the sculptor have extremely huge psychological pressure when engaging in such work.

So the process of this step is also very slow, and the sculptors would rather do it slowly than make mistakes.

This results in a long molding time, and a skilled sculptor can bring the design from the drawings to reality, with the cooperation of a team, it can take six months at the earliest, and a year at the slower.

This virtually drags on the R&D cycle of the entire model and increases a lot of R&D costs, which has always been the most headache for European and American auto companies.

In fact, as far as the current technology is concerned, 3D printing technology can completely replace the sculptor to complete this step, which can not only save a lot of money, but also save six months to a year, and replace people with machines, but also ensure the minimum possibility of making mistakes.

But the 3D printing technology in this era is not very mature, even if the United States is at the forefront of this industry. But this technology. At present, most of them stay in the laboratories of many scientific research units. is waiting for the injection of funds.

Speaking of which, with the current strength of the Americans, their 3D printers can be made bigger and done in full sets for car companies to use.

However, at present, the companies that develop 3D printing technology in the United States regard these technologies as their own treasures, and no one is willing to disclose them to the public. Because there are still some flaws in this technology, they all want to do it perfectly, and then launch it on the market, and then occupy the largest share of the market.

But to do this, it will require a large investment, but since the birth of 3D printing technology, the scientific community and industry have been controversial about this technology.

Some people believe that this is a technology that can disrupt the current industrial processing situation and lead the next generation of industrial revolution.

Others believe that the technology is nothing more than a gimmick. Because the current material science is not in place, this technology is not enough at present. Replace the current mainstream machine tool processing technology.

As far as the mainstream media are concerned, everyone is still on the side of the second point of view, which results in not many investors willing to invest their funds in the development of this new technology.

And those companies, who don't get capital, and are unwilling to show their technology publicly, are even less favored by investors, so they fall into a vicious circle.

This situation has been greatly alleviated after knowing that after the 08 financial crisis, the U.S. military favored 3DSYS to use their technology to help them manufacture the titanium alloy skeleton of F22 in order to cut costs.

At that time, people realized that the original 3D printing technology was really not bragging, although it was not yet mature, but it could already be applied in many fields.

It was at that time that Ford, which was hit hard by the economic crisis and was looking for a new way out and a way forward, took the lead in introducing 3D printing technology in the field of automobile design and processing.

After using 3D printing technology, their design team greatly reduced the original R&D cycle, and with the in-depth application of this technology, they also found a lot of applications of this technology in other aspects of automobile manufacturing.

For example, this technology can be used to print the shell of the gearbox, and the hydraulic oil valve cover, etc., while ensuring accuracy, it can not only greatly reduce the time, but also reduce the cost.

In this way, Ford became the first person to eat crabs in the automotive field, and they also relied on the application of this technology to quickly come back to life, becoming the first company among the three major American car companies to get out of the trough.

After them, GM and Volkswagen, as well as a series of Japanese automakers, began to try to introduce 3D printing technology into their car design and processing fields, but that was mostly more than ten years later.

Today, Li Yifan is standing on the shoulders of future generations and taking the lead in introducing 3D printing technology into the field of automobile design.

Hu Bin and Yao Chongshan in the newly established laboratory in Bincheng, is already in full swing, they led the team, the growth rate is very fast, although there are no results yet, but they have mastered a set in the past, and re-explored, so that the original technology, more stable, reliable, and more suitable for a certain field of use.

Li Yifan is very satisfied with their progress, because this time because of the establishment of this design laboratory, considering that most of the people in this laboratory are rookies in automotive design, they will definitely have a very long cycle to produce finished products.

On the one hand, it is to shorten the R&D cycle, and on the other hand, it is also to inspect the first 3D printer that Hu Bin and Yao Chongshan made, so he built two 3D printers and moved here.

The appearance of these two first-generation 3D printers really brought a very strong shock to everyone present.

Everyone was stunned after watching the performance of these two machines.

At this time, everyone was pointing in front of the machine, but no one reached out to touch the two machines, because everyone guided Zhou, the company had been treating these two machines as if they were treasures, and these two machines must be treasures.

Such an expensive thing must be expensive, if anyone casually goes up and does it twice, what if it breaks?

However, the finished products of these two machines were in everyone's hands and constantly observed, especially the few sculpture talents in the team.

These two toy model cars are about the same size as children's toys on the market, but the surface is very smooth, the precision is also very high, and the doors and windows are not bad, and they look very exquisite.

They weren't sure what kind of material they were using, it seemed to be plastic, but it was not easy to determine, it was very light to the touch, and it was not very strong.

But that's not the point, the point is that it seems to be very material-saving, and what amazes them the most is the accuracy of the toy.

You must know that to make such toys now, first of all, you have to open the mold, a better toy manufacturer, the accuracy of the toy mold is very high, just to open a mold, you have to smash into hundreds of thousands.

If it is an industrial mold, such as an automobile stamping die, it will cost millions casually, and the accuracy may not be guaranteed.

However, the machine in front of me does not need to open the mold at all, and can complete the model in front of me in the way of spinneret and superposition, which can save a lot of materials and save the cost of opening the mold.

However, compared to time, these are not the key, you must know that if you really design a car, bring the design from the drawings, into reality, it is all up to these sculptors.

Even if several of them work together, and no one completes a part, it is estimated that it will take a month to complete a small model with such a level of accuracy.

If they complete a one-to-one model of the real car, even if they are confident, it will take six months.

But the machine in front of me, it only took half an hour to complete the model in front of me, although it is a small guy, but even if it is a big guy, at the speed of this machine, I am afraid it will be a matter of several hours.

This efficiency alone can help the entire R&D team save a lot of time, a few hours, for six months to a year!

Is this worth it? A few sculptors, I feel that something is wrong in my heart, since you already have such a machine, then what are you looking for us to do?

Li Yifan smiled slightly and pulled the sculptors back.

"Guys, you don't have to feel uncomfortable, this is a machine after all, not a human after all. Sometimes machines make mistakes, but I believe in your eye skills, and sometimes it is up to you to achieve greater accuracy. What's more, in the whole process of this figure to the entity, if you use this machine, you need to build a data model on the computer, and several people may not play a role in reality, but when the computer does data modeling, it is inseparable from the eyesight of several people......"

Li Yifan's words made these sculptors feel a lot better, and indeed we were still useful, but it was just a battlefield of transfer, from reality to the online world.

After convincing several sculptors, Li Yifan looked in front of the machine again, and the dark cloud Gaowa was standing obsessively in front of the two machines, as if admiring two sets of perfect masterpieces.

"How's it going, how does it feel?"

Li Yifan came to her side, he knew that the shock that these two machines brought to this beautiful person in charge was probably far more than that.

When he persuaded Wuyun before, Wuyun was actually not particularly convinced of himself, but when these two machines appeared in front of her, could she still remain as calm as before?

Li Yifan doesn't believe it! For some special people, you have to use special means, especially to scratch their itches, and that's enough!

And this time, I should have scratched the most itchy place in her heart! (To be continued......)