Hyundai AMSC opens first dedicated AM R&D and production hub at Namyang, spanning polymer and metal processes

Hyundai Motor and Kia have opened the Additive Manufacturing Solution Center (AMSC) at the Namyang Research Institute Advanced Mobility Solutions building, their first facility dedicated solely to additive manufacturing research and production. The center combines design, build, post-processing, and quality verification under one roof, nearly 30 years after the group introduced its first industrial 3D printer in 1996. Polymer work uses DLP and SLA for design-validation parts and prototypes, plus polymer powder-bed fusion that can reduce supports, scrap, and finishing toward injection-like surfaces. Metal work applies laser powder bed fusion for complex structures and DED-WAAM for large steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and titanium builds.

This is captive OEM capacity for automotive development economics: fewer mold and subtractive constraints, shorter new-vehicle cycles, and geometry conventional tooling cannot justify at low volume. Uses already span prototypes and production jigs and fixtures, discontinued-vehicle service parts, heritage restoration such as a reverse-engineered Pony side sill, and motorsport parts including anti-roll bar blades, damper brackets, and brake-duct rails. A DED-WAAM motor housing finished by CNC in the same facility shows the hybrid path large automotive metal parts still require.

The practical move is multi-process internalization with DfAM for part consolidation and lattice lightweighting, plus in-house dimensional, tensile, bend, impact, and metallographic checks to conventional-part standards, expanding next into facility consumables and manufacturing tools.