BMW Group pushes 3D printing toward full industrial series production

The BMW Group is turning additive manufacturing from a prototyping tool into a standing pillar of its industrial production, with the first vehicle components made by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) scheduled to enter series production in 2027. The push is being run out of the company’s Additive Manufacturing Campus (AMC) in Oberschleissheim, north of Munich, where a new generation of metal printers, larger build volumes and digitally networked process chains are now being brought online.

The shift is important because it marks the point at which 3D printing stops being a workshop for one-off parts and starts behaving like any other production line at scale. “Additive Manufacturing is now fully integrated across all phases of the product lifecycle,” said Timo Göbel, Head of Additiv