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Koenigsegg uses a number of advanced manufacturing techniques to build its low-volume hypercars, like 3D printing. It farms out a ton of printed metal parts, but it also does liquid resin-based stereolithography, or SLA, in-house. The method uses ultraviolet light to cure photosensitive liquid resin in a number of small layers. It’s popular in the hobby space now (even I have an SLA machine) but the makeup of just any commercial resin isn’t good enough for the cutting-edge Swedish automaker. In conversation with Christian von Koenigsegg at The Quail during Monterey Car Week, he told me they mix their own resin, and no, I can’t buy any.
“We have like 10 3D printers, and now the latest super-fast resin printers,” he said. “We’re printing casings for electronic controllers, nozzles for spraying things… underneath the air vents, flaps, [those] kinds of things are printed at high temperature.” He also noted that some upholstered interior components are printed.
When it came to what sort of resin the company uses, Koenigsegg didn’t give me an exact makeup, but he did say it’s often custom. “We actually sometimes mix our own, because we wanna mix in anti-static materials, [and other things.]”
“You ever think about selling that?” I asked him.
“Sorry?”
“Ever thought about selling the Koenigsegg resin mix?”
“Not really, no,” he responded, laughing.
So yeah, I struck out on that front. I also wouldn’t say the company is missing out on much potential business by not selling its own 3D printer resin. That being said, I would buy the Koenigsegg stuff just as a novelty. Putting the Koenigsegg name on a bottle of the photosensitive liquid would allow the company to command whatever price it wanted for it. Seeing as the market for high-performance resins is growing in the automotive industry, maybe it could land a few customers, too.
Of course, Koenigsegg is a low-volume manufacturer of very expensive cars. Making big batches of resin for commercial or hobbyist customers is not a business it’s interested in. The automaker has licensed its technology in the past, like Freevalve, but realistically I know it’s not feasible. I just want to try it for the hell of it. Customers or not, I want that resin with the company’s crest on it. It would be like the fancy bottle of liquor behind the bar that nobody ever drinks. It would be a flex to own for sure.
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