Robotics and 3D Printing Join Forces in Auto Shift

Comau and Roboze team up to accelerate automated 3D printing for lighter vehicles and more flexible car production

12 Jun 2025

The auto industry’s push toward lighter, smarter vehicles just picked up speed.

Comau, a global robotics company, and industrial 3D printing firm Roboze have announced a partnership aimed at blending automation with additive manufacturing. The move signals a broader shift underway in car factories, where traditional assembly lines are steadily giving way to more flexible, tech-driven systems.

Automakers are under pressure from all sides. Electric vehicles demand lighter structures to stretch battery range. Supply chains remain fragile. And development cycles are shrinking as competition intensifies. Against that backdrop, robotics and 3D printing are moving beyond the experimental phase and edging closer to the production floor.

The new alliance brings together Comau’s experience in industrial robotics and automated systems with Roboze’s high-performance 3D printing platforms. The goal is straightforward: make complex automotive components faster and with fewer constraints than conventional methods allow.

That matters because traditional tooling can be expensive and slow to adapt. Additive manufacturing, by contrast, allows engineers to rethink part design, consolidate components, and iterate quickly. It has long been used for prototyping. Now, companies are exploring how it can support end-use parts, tooling, and specialized components at scale.

Giacomo Del Panta, Comau’s Chief Customer Management Officer, framed the partnership as a way to offer integrated solutions that combine robotics and additive manufacturing. His remarks reflect a wider industry mindset. Carmakers and suppliers are increasingly teaming up rather than developing technologies in isolation.

Still, the road ahead is not without obstacles. Certification standards, cost competitiveness, and maintaining consistent quality in higher volumes remain real challenges. Scaling additive manufacturing for mass production is complex work.

Yet the direction is becoming clearer. As vehicles grow more electrified and digitally engineered, manufacturing must evolve with them. Partnerships like this one suggest that the next chapter of automotive production will not hinge on a single breakthrough, but on collaboration between advanced technologies working in concert.