3d Printer To Build Car In 44 Hours

[eddie66]

3D Printer To Build Car In 44 Hours
Amazing technology could be the future of manufacturing

The first 3D-printed car is scheduled to roll off its printer and onto Chicago streets Saturday as a display of the technology's potential in manufacturing.

The car, called Strati, will be printed at this weekend's International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, according to ExtremeTech.

The car will be printed on a 100-square-foot printer known as a BAAM, or Big Area Additive Manufacturing, which can lay down 40 pounds of super-strength plastic per hour. It will take just 44 hours to convert a pile of carbon-reinforced plastic to a fully built car.

Technicians from the specialty car company Local Motors will add components such as wiring, tires, steering wheel and window glass. The electric engine and drivetrain come from French car manufacturer Renault.

Could this the future of car manufacturing? ExtremeTech points out that Ford, which uses gigantic plants capable of building hundreds of thousands of cars each year, could benefit from the space-saving printers. The printers might also make it easier for customers to customize their vehicles to meet their specific needs.

Check out the video

 

[ks6c]

An earlier story:
Local Motors 3D-printed car could lead an American manufacturing revolution
By Gary Gastelu
Published July 03, 2014
FoxNews.com
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  (Local Motors)
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  (Local Motors)
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  (Cincinnati Industries)
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  (Local Motors)
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  (Local Motors)

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Local Motors wants to change the way America makes things. In fact, it already has.

The Phoenix-based automotive and industrial design and manufacturing outfit was one of the pioneers of cloud-based co-creation, where members of a 150,000-member strong online community submit and refine ideas for products, dramatically speeding up the process.

Founded in 2007, its first project was the Rally Fighter, a high-speed off-roader built from a mix of original parts and off-the-shelf components that’s manufactured in small numbers at what Local Motors calls a microfactory. Each vehicle it produces is an updated version of the one before it.

Since then, the company has branched out into a variety of projects, from electric bikes to home appliances and a military vehicle prototype developed in just four and a half months.

That last one shouldn’t be a surprise. The company’s CEO, Jay Rogers, is a Princeton and Harvard-educated U.S. Marine, a veteran of the Iraq War with a clear vision for how to get things done effectively and efficiently, while always leaving room for improvement.

Now the company is taking that idea to the next level, one layer of extruded plastic at a time.
Its latest vehicle is a 3D-printed electric sports car designed by a community member from Italy. It’s currently being honed before one is printed on location in September at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago.

Called the Strati, it’s a collaboration of Local Motors, industrial parts shaping specialist Cincinnati Incorporated and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where a custom printer was created for the car.

Produced from a new fiber-reinforced thermoplastic strong enough for use in an automotive application, the chassis and body without drivetrain, wheels and brakes weighs a scant 450 pounds and the completed car is comprised of just 40 components, a number that gets smaller with every revision.

Fewer parts can mean fewer problems. Rogers says the minimalist machine is rock solid and squeak free. Things like wring brackets and channels are built right in; the first example was printed in just 40 hours and took two technicians only three days to assemble. Compare that to a team of seven working around the clock for 45 days on the first Rally Fighter, which relied on more traditional construction methods.

Rogers hopes to cut the printing time almost in half by September, and to 2.4 hours within a year. He believes the entire manufacturing process can be reduced to one hour in the future. But it could potentially be much less than that. While the current technology extrudes about 12 pounds of plastic per hour, Rogers says the experimental limit is 1,000 times as fast.
“If this works, even a little,” he says, “it will reform parts or all of the industry.”

While this undertaking is perfectly-suited to Local Motors’ small scale manufacturing model, Rogers sees no reason that it can’t be scaled up to work on a mass production level once the speed is increased. Several of the shipping container-sized printers could pump out constantly evolving cars by the thousands.

Or on demand.

Tapping into his military mind, Rogers envisions the printers being deployed with troops into the field to produce disposable vehicles, each finely tuned for a specific mission. It would eliminate waiting for much-needed equipment, and parts could be recycled or repurposed when the vehicles are no longer needed.

“People in the know are familiar with the massive overhead required by traditional manufacturing,” Rogers says. “[The Strati] is an experiment to prove this method works. If we can do it, there's no reason why we shouldn’t be doing it.”

 

[NN4S]

A friend of mine who was at the show Monday & Tuesday was telling me about this at school on Thursday. We have an older 3D printer that I use on occasion and we were comparing notes on the materials and operational differences between ours and the one printing the car. Thing is, the cost of the technologies involved make it far-fetched for this to be a production system. While great for prototyping and design prove-out, the limitations of the materials and legal issues will likely keep it from ever becoming a means of producing new vehicles for consumers (government and military use, however, may well be a possibility given their tendency to exclude themselves from certain rules and regulations).

 

[BigWarpGuy]

Perhaps if there was a bunch of them printing cars that it could reduce the cost?

I think it is pretty neat. If one has the money, I think it would be cool to have ones own car 3D printed. I think it has a lot of potential.

 

[goldwing06]

if ugly gets an award, then we have a winner!

NOT THE GUY ON THE PHONE!

 

[wayne kemp]

Star Trek has arrived. Now for that 5'6" blonde that obeys my command.
"Beam me up, Scotty"

 

[NSTG8R]

We use SLS 3D printing ALL the time at Boeing. Had some fuel tank covers made up to keep FO (foreign objects) out, and keep workers from stepping into a big, groin destroying, hole...rated for 300lbs, less than 1/2" thick. I actually had the opportunity to play around with an Arcam about 5 years back. It used a process called EBM (electron beam melting...I think). Kind of looked like a big side-by-side fridge. Used some titanium alloy powder as the matrix. You could literally put threaded holes in a CAD'ed part, blow a little compressed air through the holes after is was done, and thread a bolt right into it. I believe they said it was stronger than a cast part, and a little less than a forged part. Pretty incredible!

Here we go...I believe this is the model they had.

 

[goldwing06]

We use SLS 3D printing ALL the time at Boeing. Had some fuel tank covers made up to keep FO (foreign objects) out, and keep workers from stepping into a big, groin destroying, hole...rated for 300lbs, less than 1/2" thick. I actually had the opportunity to play around with an Arcam about 5 years back. It used a process called EBM (electron beam melting...I think). Kind of looked like a big side-by-side fridge. Used some titanium alloy powder as the matrix. You could literally put threaded holes in a CAD'ed part, blow a little compressed air through the holes after is was done, and thread a bolt right into it. I believe they said it was stronger than a cast part, and a little less than a forged part. Pretty incredible!

Here we go...I believe this is the model they had.

View attachment 2803

actually, it was a lot bigger. scroll back up this page and u will see it was lots bigger. that compound of media u mentioned sounds like it would be good for making lowers for ar15 rifles. the plastic worked ok but wasn't all that permenant.

 

[NSTG8R]

actually, it was a lot bigger. scroll back up this page and u will see it was lots bigger. that compound of media u mentioned sounds like it would be good for making lowers for ar15 rifles. the plastic worked ok but wasn't all that permenant.

Oh, I saw the one they made the car in, and I assume it's close, if not the same material they're making out tank covers out of (polypropylene or polyethylene...something like that), but the Arcam uses only metallic powders like titanium and cobalt...maybe stainless too...been awhile, in a vacuum chamber. I don't think a part made with an Arcam would meet aerospace standards (waaay picky they are!), but I have heard that F1 teams made suspension components for testing purposes. Just really neat technology! And getting better exponentially every year! As for the AR15 parts, you could make all the metal parts with an Arcam, including the assembly screws, rifling and all...VERY cool!

 

[goldwing06]

Oh, I saw the one they made the car in, and I assume it's close, if not the same material they're making out tank covers out of (polypropylene or polyethylene...something like that), but the Arcam uses only metallic powders like titanium and cobalt...maybe stainless too...been awhile, in a vacuum chamber. I don't think a part made with an Arcam would meet aerospace standards (waaay picky they are!), but I have heard that F1 teams made suspension components for testing purposes. Just really neat technology! And getting better exponentially every year! As for the AR15 parts, you could make all the metal parts with an Arcam, including the assembly screws, rifling and all...VERY cool!

well, the feds got kinda snooty about the printed gun stuff so thats not all that popular any more but still cool!