NISMO Heritage Parts will take advantage of 3D printing and
The NISMO Heritage Parts Programme is one of the best examples of a Japanese car company taking care of their modern classics. They added support for the R33 and R34 Skyline GT-R models in 2018 and will even fully-restore your R32 Skyline GT-R to factory-fresh condition should you wish. Now they’ve announced the next step for their programme, and that is to integrate dual-sided dieless forming for body panels and 3D printing for resin parts.
Producing dies is costly and only makes sense if you’re going to churn out parts en masse. For the low volume of production required by the NISMO Heritage Parts programme, these two technologies make more sense.
Here’s the press release with more information.
PRESS RELEASE
Nissan unveiled dual-sided dieless forming technology in October 2019 as a method to produce body panels in low volumes. The method enables the moulding of complex shapes through the use of robots pressing rod-shaped moulding tools onto opposite sides of a steel sheet to incrementally deform and mould a panel.
With this production method, Nissan plans to produce rear panels for the R32 Skyline GT-R. Nissan created prototypes while incorporating the sheet metal know-how of skilled workers and used dual-sided dieless forming and non-lubricated processing with mirrored diamond-coated tools as a base. By working closely with its suppliers, Nissan has achieved the high-quality required for automobile parts.
The 3-D printing technology was jointly developed with Solize Corporation to produce a protector made of resin for the harness in the R32 Skyline GT-R. With the harness body supplier’s cooperation, Nissan redesigned the parts and conducted performance tests that adapt to 3-D printers, enabling a shorter time to commercialize high-standard parts.
The NISMO Heritage Parts program, launched in December 2017, has expanded parts delivery from 80 to 300 parts. It is part of Nissan’s efforts to enable customers to continue to drive their Nissan performance cars for a longer period of time. NISMO Heritage Parts are produced in collaboration with suppliers by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Nissan Motor Sports International Co., Ltd., Autech Japan, Inc.
Nissan plans to continue to utilize technologies from the Nissan Research Center and its Production Engineering Research and Development Center to further expand the NISMO Heritage Parts program.
