Audi Sport prints assembly fixtures in a day and cuts tool costs more than 80 percent

Audi Sport makes the tools, jigs and fixtures for its Böllinger Höfe factory in Heilbronn, Germany, with trinckle's Fixturemate design software and UltiMaker S series 3D printers. UltiMaker says the approach cut tool production costs by more than 80 percent and shortened delivery from weeks or months to one day.

The plant builds the Audi R8 and the all-electric Audi E-Tron GT. When the E-Tron GT went into production, the team needed nearly 200 tools, jigs and fixtures. Cem Guelaylar, 3D printing expert at Audi Sport, said the factory produces "nearly eight hundred" such items overall. Outsourcing, he said, takes "more than two or three, four weeks, or months," while in-house printing means "it takes one day to get this tool in his hand."

Design time shrank too. Fixturemate is built for assembly fixtures. A user imports a part, sets its orientation, then adds a base plate, support points and mounting holes, with a library of off-the-shelf items such as clamps. UltiMaker puts the work at 10–20 minutes, against hours in traditional CAD. Guelaylar put the classic-construction figure at two to four hours depending on part size, and said trainees can use Fixturemate directly.

Some of the printed tools are inspection aids. Audi Sport mounts custom quality control jigs on car parts to check alignment and tolerances. One focuses the head-up display. It projects two lasers onto the installed HUD, and when they align, the reflective glass is seated correctly. For quality engineers, the relevant detail is turnaround. According to UltiMaker, a jig that misses its requirements can be revised and reprinted directly, with no supplier quote or delivery wait.

Most fixtures use Tough PLA, which UltiMaker says has flex and strength similar to ABS without the printing difficulties. Protective tools use TPU95a, a soft material that keeps parts from being damaged. Fixtures that handle electronics use ESD-safe PLA, one of the third-party materials available through the UltiMaker Marketplace. Print profiles for those materials are free in Ultimaker Cura. Guelaylar said the factory picks Tough PLA "because it's cheap and it's easy to use," with ABS or PETG used occasionally.