3D printed car concept

Interesting short article about 3D printed, 3 wheel city car. They're designing it to meet 'LeMans safety standards."

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/Rs6iUWenqKs/

crap, can somebody fix my typo in the title??!! I'm NOT an idiot, I SWEAR!!

Not another one of these fantasy vehicles! Remember the Dale?

Also relevant:

http://www.materialise.com/cases/the-areion-by-formula-group-t-the-world-s-first-3d-printed-race-car

Yeah I don't think this car will achieve commercial success, but the technology is interesting.

2,500 hours to create the body? Doesn't really sound like the right technology for making more than a couple prototypes. Even if it's only $10 an hour to run the machines, which I'd guess is on the low side, that is going to be one expensive car!

For ballpark costing, a 3D printer that makes parts out of ABS usually costs about $6-8 per cubic inch of material.

So it's a very interesting idea, but technology is going to have to come way down.

yeah, after they said 2500 hours, they went on to say the prototype cost was estimated at $50,000. That's got to be the most optimistic math since mpg

You would be amazed at how strong 3d printed objects can be. Because there are no welds (a typical weakness in cars) you have infinite possibilities in terms of shapes, NVH reduction, waterproofing, varrying thicknesses to creat specific break points, they will never break and they can be recycled when they reach the end of their life cycle. Additionally, it is very easy to honeycomb 3d plastic parts. But the real advantage is in flexibility and low production costs. Normally a prototype like this would cost well into six figures to produce through traditional methods. Furthermore, ABS plastic is only about $30 for a 2.2lbs spool ($13.64/lbs.). Considering that there are .036lbs. in a cubic inch of abs plastic, it costs about $0.50 in raw materials for 3d printing. I think that "unevolved" is referring to what a typical 3d printing shop will charge. You have to consider that these people are contracting a printing shop and costs will be higher. But if you are going to do something on this large a scale, you need a faster process. I was amazed by USC's "Contour Crafting" system: http://contourcrafting.org/

I was basing my quotes off of what I heard from a 3D printer salesman the other day trying to sell us a 3D printer with 32 micron resolution. That $6-8/cu. in. figure is what he was saying winds up being the overall operating costs for printing, including support material, etc. I'm sure the costs go down with lower resolution, but for that same printer, to get something printed we were looking at about 5-8 times more than that for contracting it out.

What kind of mileage/speed would you get with, say, a hayabusa engine in there? I would assume the mileage would be pretty good and the power/weight ratio would be excellent. I'm sure mileage would suffer over their hybrid drive train, but still, it couldn't be a boring drive.

Plus 50 years from now you won't need to comb the junkyards for replacement parts to your classic car. You will just print the broken part. Yeah it could take the fun out of it.

Mmadness wrote: You would be amazed at how strong 3d printed objects can be. Because there are no welds (a typical weakness in cars) you have infinite possibilities in terms of shapes, NVH reduction, waterproofing, varrying thicknesses to creat specific break points, they will never break and they can be recycled when they reach the end of their life cycle. Additionally, it is very easy to honeycomb 3d plastic parts. But the real advantage is in flexibility and low production costs. Normally a prototype like this would cost well into six figures to produce through traditional methods. Furthermore, ABS plastic is only about $30 for a 2.2lbs spool ($13.64/lbs.). Considering that there are .036lbs. in a cubic inch of abs plastic, it costs about $0.50 in raw materials for 3d printing. I think that "unevolved" is referring to what a typical 3d printing shop will charge. You have to consider that these people are contracting a printing shop and costs will be higher. But if you are going to do something on this large a scale, you need a faster process. I was amazed by USC's "Contour Crafting" system: http://contourcrafting.org/

3D canoe.

SVreX, while it does sound a lot like a sales pitch, it is directly relevant to the thread... plus a bunch of this particular person's posts don't smack of canoe-ness, and it doesn't seem to be a frequent occurrence for a canoe to reply to a specific person either, personal opinion I'd hold off on proclaiming him to be a maritime vessel, at least for the time being...

104 days to print a car?

Hard to turn a profit at that rate.

Aren't there people here with access to 3D printers? I have access to a 3D scanner. What can I scan that you want to print off? My miata? My office? My bellhousing that connects a zetec to a Type 9? Me?!?...

This technology is in its infancy, but in time will be doable at a reasonable price point. I remember the first time I saw a 40 inch flat screen TV. It was in the SF digs of a multi-millionaire. Now they're dirt cheap. A few years ago a small 3d printer was 50 large. Now I can build a maker-bot for about a grand. I remember a video editor friend buying memory at a thousand dollars a gig.... There are limits to what can be done with composites, but let's say you're geographically remote. Instead of paying extra to have everything brought in, at some point it'll make sense to have a large 3d printer and a couple hoppers full of pelets. Print 80 percent of your hard goods and probably more.

Try this on for size: buy a mechanical package from someone like Ford, and every few months they and a few dozen other companies will offer downloadable skin packages in the latest style that can be bolted right on. At first only specialty shops will be able to print the body panels, but in time your GRM posts are going to run something like: "Hey guys, I'm going to run a set of panels for my BMW this weekend. Should I go old school and lay on the latest Bangle, or try the 325is revision 6? Of course Nancy wants me to throw something from Prada on there, but I said no way"

Chances are that it'll be my son posting that. I'll be in the garage making patch panels for my E9.

indeed.. very much in it's infancy.. it will not be too long until it is truely like startrek

3D printed box flares ftw

I find this very interesting. While I don't see this car flooding the market in 2 years, I do think that things will be going this way. Technological singularity and all.

Then again there is always a "car of the future" that never happens, Turbines, atomic power, that GM hydrogen skate board with interchangeable bodies...

ultraclyde wrote: crap, can somebody fix my typo in the title??!! I'm NOT an idiot, I SWEAR!!

Got it.

ultraclyde wrote: crap, can somebody fix my typo in the title??!! I'm NOT an idiot, I SWEAR!!

That's OK, we're all idiots here.

In reply to kreb:

On this subject of "printing" a car body... The ABS plastic used by this process is WEAK, no where near the strength of fiberglas, let alone metal or carbon fiber. It is fine to make prototype parts, in preparation for the final tooling. but not good for really structural parts. Maybe some day?? Secondly, the surface finish the printing process gives is rather rough (layered like a terrain map) and needs extensive finishing, which adds many many hours and $$ to the process. The bottom line is that this company, like almost all of them, are SCAM artists, grossly misrepresenting their product.

In reply to olpro: Isn't that the story with most emerging technologies? Smart young men talk the venture capitalists out of their cash, which they spend like drunken sailors. Occasionally they build and market something special. More often they fail or are bought by someone else. Sure, the technology isn't ready yet, but it's not that far distant, either. ABS won't fly, but something will. Perhaps UV-cured like surfboards? Maybie they top coat it with a powder and bake it?

neon4891 wrote: Then again there is always a "car of the future" that never happens, Turbines, atomic power, that GM hydrogen skate board with interchangeable bodies...

I'm thinking this is what will make the GM skateboard finally make sense. As was said above, you buy a drivetrain from Ford/Mazda/Toyota/whomever, and print out a body to your needs and wants.

This would be amazing. Want a Mazda6 but in a wagon? Just print out the wagon version instead. Want a hardtop Miata with a back seat? Print it. Want a Cayman shooting brake? Print it.

Biggest obstacle I see isn't the technology, it's how you're going to register your vehicle. The system is based on year/make/model; I just don't see government having the flexibility or willingness to scrap that to accommodate.

Yeah, but the skateboard is just the chasis, suspension a propulsion. To keep the feds happy, you have to throw in all the safety stuff, plus operable doors, et cetera. That's why the first implementation of this will be more like the Fiero (Try not to puke).