by Industrial Print Magazine Staff
The April issue of Industrial Print magazine (IPM) includes an article on additive manufacturing’s (AM’s) place in the production of the various parts and tools used in the transportation industry.
NIDEC MACHINE TOOL AMERICA delivers gear-making machines, expertise, and end-to-end support to elevate manufacturing capabilities while maximizing efficiency and precision. It recently announced the rebranding of its AM division to Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, marking a significant step forward in the company’s commitment to delivering precision manufacturing solutions across North America.
Its metal AM system, LAMDA, is included under the newly configured division. Built for large-scale metal 3D printing, the series compromises of the LAMDA200, LAMDA500, LAMDA2000, and LAMDA5000.
Tobias Dornai, senior AM engineer, NIDEC Machine Tool America, is part of the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies division and we had a chance to ask a few questions about AM and transportation.
IPM: AM is ideal for manufacturing parts and tools ultimately used in transportation like automotive, rail, and aerospace. Designs not capable of being manufactured via more traditional technologies are possible. Why is this?
Dornai: Additive parts through design for AM often simplify the complexity of manufacturing while still keeping overall performance requirements. This process is further improved by parts that require minimal post printing work. AM gives a degree of flexibility with part design and does not rely as heavily on supply chain constraints.
Your design work and manufacturing planning is drastically reduced with AM; you have minimal reliance on other manufacturing processes for the most part. This makes up for a slightly longer manufacturing time compared to tradition manufacturing. In addition to this, newer design processes such as generative design and topology optimization, which optimize parts based on weight and force—among other—constraints further improve design processes. Processes that are becoming more popular with automotive companies, most notably Czinger automotive.
IPM: Now we talk a lot about AM for prototyping, that’s really where it got its start. Can you narrate for us why prototyping was really the main function early on, especially in transportation?
Dornai: Prototyping in the early days of AM was very involved with evaluating designs and materials and determining testing requirements. Production capability was usually very low, which restricted it from mass production applications especially in automotive where they are producing a car a minute. In addition, adoption for the most critical applications was an issue because of a lack of acceptance criteria and trust in the process. You could give a part to two different additive companies and they would come up with two different requirements. This is now improving with work from ASTM, NASA, AWS, the Military, and others. Another main reason for initial prototyping induction was a reduction of reliance on a robust supply chain to build parts. You can build a majority of your components in house without long lead times from suppliers.
Check out our feature article for more on AM in transportation!
We also share a conversation with another market leader in this space, Lithoz.
Apr2026, Industrial Print Magazine
