3D printed car

[evandael]

I was at IMTS watching this thing from Sunday-Wednesday. Unfortunately I couldn't stay the whole week to watch its completion, but it's very exciting.


From the same company (Local Motors) that made the collaboratively designed Rally Fighter:






https://localmotors.com/3dprintedcar/


I think it's an interesting experiment and may point towards manufacturing possibilities in the future, especially for boutique sportscar manufacuters (Ariel, etc) or restoration purposes (reproduction NLA parts, anyone?)

[nando]

that's cool. it's ugly as hell but obviously it's just a prototype.

I wonder about safety - not that it's probably a death trap, but modern safety tests basically simulate hitting a giant god damn SUV at 60mph. That's really a design issue though.

[Farbin Kaiber]

http://makezine.com/2013/08/01/3d-printing-an-aston-martin/

[Liquidity]

That car has a lot more parts than 40. There's over 40 parts just in one corner of the suspension. Hell, I bet there's 40 parts just in one strut. But lemme guess, they didn't include those parts yet they included them in the *20,000 parts* of a normal car.

Why does everyone gotta lie all the time?

[anabolice30]

That car has a lot more parts than 40. There's over 40 parts just in one corner of the suspension. Hell, I bet there's 40 parts just in one strut. But lemme guess, they didn't include those parts yet they included them in the *20,000 parts* of a normal car.

Why does everyone gotta lie all the time?

I doubt they are counting every nut and bolt as a part. Maybe they mean 40 pieces to put it together?

[Liquidity]

I doubt they are counting every nut and bolt as a part. Maybe they mean 40 pieces to put it together?

Of course they're not including every nut and bolt in their car. That's my point. There are not 20,000 components in a normal car either if you completely ignore all the hardware, the suspension and the engine.

[TobyB]

Why is fewer better?

t

[brbahner]

everyones worried about number of parts... im just over here wondering if those fifteen52 turbo fans can be made with a 3d printer

[BillBrasky]

That's really cool. evandael, were you at IMTS representing a company or just a visitor? I've always wanted to go there but I've never been able to get away from work to attend.

[glucklich21]

Looks like to me they had issues with their plastic flow and temperature. Those layers look atrocious!

[Q5Quint]

Looks like to me they had issues with their plastic flow and temperature. Those layers look atrocious!

Guys check out my new 3d printer!




Seriously though, If the unibody of your car counts as one part, how would a '3d printed' car have any less parts?

You still need the same bearings, suspension, exhaust pipes etc.... you just made the body out of 3d-printer caulk instead of steel/carbon/plastic for whatever weird reason.

[Northern]

I think they meant 40 assemblies, not individual parts.

I guess it is cool that it is made out of fewer bits, but its not like you're going to use 3d printing to mass produce something.

[nando]

Not yet. The process will improve however. The biggest drawback is speed - the reason for the huge ridges on that car is because they increased the speed at the cost of resolution. it still took 2 straight days of printing. That's pretty slow but also remember a regular car takes weeks to build.

but if you remember back in the days of dot matrix printing, a color page would take like 10 minutes and it looked like hell. Now a color print takes like 5 seconds, if that, plus the quality has increased 1000x. there's no reason to think 3D printing won't see the same improvements in speed and quality.

[Silverdogz]

I'm thinking 3d printed e30 parts...

[Wschnitz]

I'm thinking 3d printed e30 parts...

Most printer plastic is brittle as fuck. Anything thin will break. I guarantee it.