How are police cars and special vehicles made with SLS 3D printing?

Posted by FIT THAI on June 8, 2026

MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH is a leading manufacturer of special vehicles located in Kippenheim, Germany. With almost 50 employees, the company produces approximately 1,000 special and emergency vehicles per year.

The company's clients include German state and federal police forces, the defense sector, fire and rescue services, technical assistance organizations, municipalities, and industrial clients, all of whom require highly customized vehicles with advanced capabilities.

In the automotive industry, most parts are produced through mass manufacturing processes, such as plastic injection molding, which is cost-effective for standard production of hundreds of thousands of units.

However, MOSOLF's customers require a variety of specialized and low-volume parts, for which the tooling cost makes traditional manufacturing methods economically unfeasible.

For MOSOLF, 3D printing technology offers a highly suitable solution for these needs.

“I estimate that for every three police vans in Germany today, at least one has parts produced with additive manufacturing technology inside.
At MOSOLF, we have now developed and implemented 3D printing technology to such an advanced degree that not a single vehicle leaves our factory without 3D printed parts inside.
Currently, we produce approximately 5,000 3D printed parts per year, and this trend continues to grow. This means that every vehicle will have at least three, or possibly more, parts printed with this technology.”

Carsten Busam
Head of Project Planning
Carsten Busam
MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH

Read on to learn how MOSOLF uses Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing technology, in conjunction with the Fuse series printers, to produce a wide range of end-use parts for police vans, as well as other types of special and emergency vehicles.

Custom Solutions to Meet the Needs of 17 Police Agencies in Germany

“Our biggest challenge is variety,” says Busam.

Each state and federal police agency procures several different types of vehicles, and each vehicle may require additional customization according to its specific operational purpose.

The parts to be installed also vary. For example, each agency might use radio communication systems or signaling systems from different manufacturers, requiring many specially designed parts for each vehicle.

“We produce vehicles for 17 police agencies in Germany, and each has its own idea of what ergonomics should look like and how they want to use them. So, even if the production volume of the core infrastructure is quite high, once the level of specific customization is integrated, the production volume for each part becomes small again,” says Busam.

The MOSOLF team starts with standard series vehicles from the factory; that is, they take commercially available cars, trucks, and vans and customize them to meet customer requirements.

The team must find suitable mounting positions for each piece of equipment the customer needs, ensuring that the installation is easy to use, durable, and aesthetically pleasing.

In older vehicles, finding mounting positions for equipment was easier, as there were still several empty spaces within the dashboard or console that MOSOLF could modify. However, newer vehicles present a greater challenge.

“Today's cars have an increasing number of displays. There's hardly any space left inside for additional equipment, perhaps only some storage compartments and mobile phone charging pads. So, finding installation space that can accommodate all the control units is a challenge, especially in concealed patrol vehicles where it shouldn't be obvious to the public that it's actually a police car,” says Busam.

MOSOLF began its journey with 3D printing technology in 2016 when the Bavarian State Police ordered the installation of new digital radio communication systems for all vehicles and motorcycles in their fleet.

“We had to find specific solutions for every vehicle and every motorcycle. If we had chosen to manufacture all parts from sheet metal, the work would have taken an enormous amount of time, or the results would not have been very aesthetically pleasing. So, we ventured into the world of 3D printing for the first time,” says Busam.

Custom-designed mounting bracket for the front LED strobe lights of a police van.

The team previously used sheet metal forming processes to produce this type of part.

Currently, SLS 3D printing technology offers a solution that is significantly faster, easier, and more cost-effective compared to traditional manufacturing methods.

Initially, the team produced parts using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing, as it was the most accessible technology at the time and adequately met their needs to some extent.

However, they quickly encountered limitations. FDM technology could not be easily scaled up to meet the required production volume, and the quality of the produced parts was not up to industrial standards.

SLS 3D printing technology was the most technically suitable next step, but at the time, most SLS systems started at around €200,000, making it an investment beyond the means of a small business.

This situation changed when Formlabs introduced the Fuse series printers.

“SLS is a highly suitable technology for MOSOLF because it offers excellent quality, high precision, high-performance materials, and the ability to produce many parts simultaneously.

Furthermore, it is cost-effective because the entire system is very accessible in terms of price,” says Gerhard Duda, CEO and founder of 3D-WERK Black Forest GmbH, a Formlabs partner who has worked with the MOSOLF team from the beginning to find the most suitable solution for the company's applications.

Busam adds:

“The Fuse Ecosystem was the right choice for us because it is the easiest system to manage, both in terms of usability and workflow.”

This speaker cover was designed to help reduce pre-installation costs by 70%.

The speaker can be directly pressed and assembled into the insert via a clip-in locking system, without the need for adhesive bonding or mechanical fasteners such as screws, nuts, or other mounting kits.

Manufacturing Custom End-Use Parts in 24 Hours with SLS 3D Printing

Compared to traditional mass manufacturing processes such as injection molding, thermoforming, or sheet metal forming,

the most significant advantage of additive manufacturing is the ability to produce custom or low-volume end-use parts without the need for expensive molds and tooling.

“We use SLS technology, and specifically the Fuse 1+ 30W, to produce a wide range of parts, from small and simple parts to complex consoles installed inside vehicles.

We use this technology extensively, and the Fuse printer can meet approximately 80% of our production needs,”

says Tiberiu Morariu, Head of Prototyping, Design, and Technical Concepts at MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH.

The MOSOLF team uses SLS 3D printing technology to produce a variety of custom parts, from small covers and device housings to large multi-part assemblies and various components on the vehicle's console or dashboard.

“The requirements and demands vary from state to state, and even from one police station to another. So, using 3D printing makes it easier to realize these needs.

You can quickly modify and redesign from one vehicle to another, even if the vehicle model is the same. The exterior shape or contour may remain the same, but the systems to be additionally installed inside the vehicle differ greatly,”

says Tiberiu Morariu.

The radio mount is a good example of design for specialized customization.

The part that attaches to the vehicle's console is the same for all Mercedes vans, but the overall assembly can be easily modified by simply changing the mount to accommodate radio communication devices from different manufacturers.

This ease of modification significantly accelerates both the prototyping and actual production processes, especially when both prototypes and end-use parts can be produced on the same printer.

“For me as a designer, there's nothing better than having an idea in my head today, designing it, and then being able to hold the actual part in my hands and examine it the next day,”

says Tiberiu Morariu.

“The biggest impact of 3D printing on our in-house production is that we can work much faster in many areas.

With traditional manufacturing processes, the lead time for parts is usually about 4 to 6 weeks, especially if the part requires additional surface finishing.

But with 3D printing, we can procure parts almost overnight.

If we didn't have access to 3D printing technology, our workflow would take much longer and be much more complex, as we would likely have to produce and iterate each part multiple times to achieve the desired result.”

Carsten Busam
Head of Project Planning
Carsten Busam
MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH

Item	SLS 3D Printing	Sheet Metal Forming	Thermoforming	Injection Molding
Time from Design → Prototyping → Production of Actual Parts	1–2 weeks	6–8 weeks	6–8 weeks	6–8 weeks
Lead Time for End-Use Parts	1–2 days	6–8 weeks	6–8 weeks	6–8 weeks
Other Factors	- No molds or tooling required- Easy customization- High design freedom- Better aesthetic quality	- Requires molds or tooling- More design constraints- More difficult to customize- Inferior aesthetic quality	- Requires molds or tooling- Design constraints- More difficult to customize	- Requires very expensive molds- Does not support specific customization- Less design freedom

Based on this data, MOSOLF found that SLS 3D Printing can reduce the time from design to actual use from 6–8 weeks to just 1–2 days or 1–2 weeks, depending on the production stage. It also helps reduce tooling costs and efficiently supports the production of small quantities of specialized parts.

“Vehicles are becoming increasingly aesthetically pleasing. The interior cabins have more flowing lines and shapes.

Storage spaces within the vehicle are also becoming more complex and varied.

3D printing is very important for the design and ergonomics of vehicles because these things cannot always be easily done with other technologies such as thermoforming or sheet metal forming.

Furthermore, connecting parts to the vehicle body, which often has complex geometries, can be best solved with 3D printing.

With 3D printing, I have more design freedom and can fully express my creativity in terms of design and shape.”

Tiberiu Morariu
Head of Prototyping, Design, and Technical Concepts
Tiberiu Morariu
MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH

This air vent is a one-way valve used to separate the black and white compartments within special vehicles for arson investigation.

This part is a relatively complex assembly, consisting of three pieces secured together with screws.

Initially, the team attempted to produce this part using FDM 3D printing, but encountered problems due to the part's circular shape and thin walls, making production difficult.

For this reason, the team switched to SLS 3D printing technology, which offers greater design freedom and can better accommodate complex geometries.

One of the key advantages of SLS 3D printing is that engineers are familiar with the mechanical properties of the materials used, such as Nylon, which is a popular material in the automotive industry for producing both interior and exterior vehicle components.

The MOSOLF team has a good understanding of how Nylon parts produced with SLS will perform in use. Therefore, they can design with practical application in mind, and in some cases, can even replace original metal parts with SLS printed parts.


Clip-on mount within the cargo hold for a removable emergency light	Housing and mount for a ceiling light fixture

“With the Fuse Ecosystem, you inherently get the right materials. These materials are ready for real-world applications, have been used for a very long time, and have been thoroughly tested.”

says Gerhard Duda

Beyond durability, one of the most critical properties for automotive applications is heat resistance.

For materials used with FDM 3D printers, PLA is practically unusable for these types of applications, as it has a Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT) of only about 50°C at 0.45 MPa.

ABS has an HDT of approximately 90°C at 0.45 MPa, which, while better than PLA, is still close to or potentially below the requirements for many applications.

In contrast, Formlabs Nylon 12 Powder has a high HDT of 171°C at 0.45 MPa, providing significantly greater heat resistance.

This means that end-use parts, such as radio holders, will not be at risk of deformation or damage when a vehicle is parked in the sun on a hot summer day and the interior temperature rises significantly.

In other words, Nylon 12 Powder produced with SLS is clearly more suitable for end-use automotive parts than PLA and ABS, in terms of durability, dimensional stability, and ability to withstand high temperatures.


Housing for an electrical outlet	Protective cover to avoid accidental damage during transport or operation inside the vehicle

In some cases, certain vehicles are leased to police or emergency rescue agencies, and upon completion of their service period, they are resold to the general public or other government agencies.

For this reason, the MOSOLF team must modify and install equipment into the vehicles without causing damage or permanent alteration to the original parts of the vehicle, so that the vehicle can be easily restored to its original condition at the end of its service life in such missions.

Additive Manufacturing technology also facilitates this type of operation.

Instead of permanently drilling, cutting, or modifying the original vehicle components, the team can remove them and replace them with 3D-printed parts. When it's time to restore the vehicle, the printed parts can be easily removed, and the original components reinstalled.

This approach minimizes damage to the original vehicle, increases customization flexibility, and makes it much easier to repurpose the vehicle after its mission is complete.

Police Vehicles of the Future Will Use More 3D Printing Technology

Building on the successful implementation of SLS 3D printing technology, the teams at MOSOLF and 3D-WERK are exploring the potential of using other materials and additional printers to replace an even wider range of components in special vehicles.

Their goal is to expand the scope of 3D printing applications to cover more components, in terms of design, manufacturing, and practical use within various types of special vehicles.

“Even today, after many years working in Additive Manufacturing, there are still times when I stand and look at products that we have designed and manufactured ourselves, and I am still amazed at what is before me.

Especially when I see that it can actually work, with various functionalities and the many possibilities that 3D printing technology offers.”

Stated Michael Ringwald, Managing Director of MOSOLF Special Vehicles GmbH.