Hyundai and Kia Open a 3D Printing Hub at Namyang

Hyundai Motor and Kia have officially opened the Additive Manufacturing Solution Center at their Namyang R&D Center in South Korea. It is the group’s first facility built specifically for additive manufacturing research and production, marking a clear shift from scattered experimental use to a centralized, industrialized approach.

What the Center Does

The AMSC brings multiple 3D printing processes together in one place. Vat photopolymerization handles high-precision prototypes and tooling. Metal powder bed fusion produces intricate automotive components with complex geometries that would be impossible or wasteful with conventional machining. Directed energy deposition, including wire-arc systems compatible with steel, aluminum, and titanium, builds larger structural metal parts. Every part then moves through a Quality Inspection Cell that checks dimensional accuracy, tensile strength, bending stiffness, and impact resistance against production standards.

Why Now

Hyundai Motor Group installed its first industrial 3D printer back in 1996. Nearly 30 years later, the company is finally giving additive manufacturing its own dedicated building. The gap says less about interest and more about scale: 3D printing only recently reached the maturity and volume needed to justify a purpose-built center instead of departmental machines scattered across a larger campus.

The timing also lines up with pressure to reduce tooling costs, cut material waste, and compress development cycles. Traditional manufacturing still relies on molds, dies, and fixtures that take weeks or months to produce. Additive manufacturing lets engineers move directly from a CAD file to a physical part, which matters when you are tuning suspension components, bracket designs, or interior trim for multiple models at once.

What Changes for the Brand

This is not a pilot project. Hyundai and Kia plan to use the AMSC for prototypes, production tooling, and even heritage or low-volume parts that would otherwise require expensive retooling. The integrated workflow spans design, production, post-processing, and validation, which means the center can support a part from first concept to factory floor without leaving the campus.

The opening also signals to suppliers and competitors that Hyundai is treating additive manufacturing as a core competency, not a side experiment. If the company can scale polymer and metal AM reliably at Namyang, it will have leverage to push the same processes into manufacturing plants and supplier networks across the group.