3-D Printed Car Is as Strong as Steel, Half the Weight, and Nearing Production

linky

Every time I look online I see a new use for the 3D printer. Talk about a technology that's poised to take over the world.

Now we have an engineer that's decided he's going to make a 3d printed car. If ar-15 lowers weren't a hell of innovation. This blows that one out of the water.

Kor and his team built the three-wheel, two-passenger vehicle at RedEye, an on-demand 3-D printing facility. The printers he uses create ABS plastic via Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). The printer sprays molten polymer to build the chassis layer by microscopic layer until it arrives at the complete object. The machines are so automated that the building process they perform is known as “lights out” construction, meaning Kor uploads the design for a bumper, walk away, shut off the lights and leaves. A few hundred hours later, he’s got a bumper. The whole car – which is about 10 feet long – takes about 2,500 hours.

So we have a 3D printed car that's really designated as a motorcycle to get past the crash safety regulations. But it will be just as strong as steel according to the designer. Plus it will be built to Le Mans standards.
This is very cool stuff. Pretty soon anyone with access to a 3D printer and internet will be able to make anything they can find plans for.

EPIC!

Hmmmm, made out of ABS but as strong as steel? Physically impossible. I'm dubious.

3-D printing a plastic shell isn't all that impressive, especially since it takes them months to produce a single shell. They certainly aren't 3-D printing a car; to say as much is misleading.

Still cool, though. It's a technology in its infancy that has a HUGE upside. It's gotta start somewhere.

I'm still waiting on the wave disk generator! Another spectacular technology that could change the world overnight, but is being drown out.

phys.org...
www.nbcnews.com...

At 2500 hours it takes to make a single car, I'm not sure the production scales up very well, and that printer probably costs in tens of millions.

reply to post by grey580


He's not making that with the same printer they make the ar-15 lowers with.

And the ar-15 printer is upwards of $20k so.. yeah, I don't see this being anything but the playground for millionaires or people who can afford to buy a dinky little car to start with.

It's a novelty.

But it's funny to see everyone thinking they're able to go out and print out anything they like.

Anything that is practical and usable, you're not going to invest in a device costing tens of thousands of dollars, and just print one. You're a business and you're not making things on the sly, or one off things.

Who knows though, it was only 15 years ago that I saw a 3d printer in a cad room at the local tafe.

maybe in 15-20 years time, they'll be as common as lexmark ink jets that you buy and never use.

Originally posted by winofiend
Who knows though, it was only 15 years ago that I saw a 3d printer in a cad room at the local tafe.

maybe in 15-20 years time, they'll be as common as lexmark ink jets that you buy and never use.

reply to post by winofiend


Our transhumanist overlords will be playing with their atomic scale nanotech printers by then. ABS printers will be a novelty of the past. Again, although this is just the infancy stage, the upside to this tech is enormous.

reply to post by winofiend


there are already 3d printers capable of printing various metals, clays, plastics, hell ive seen one that uses a big fresnel lense to print in glass using sand

thenextweb.com...

heres one that can print a house in 20 hours using something akin to concrete (3x stronger than actual concrete)

the technology is advancing at an extremely rapid pace and it probably wont be more than a few decades before theres one in every home like a washing machine or refrigerator and people will be able to produce many consumer goods in their own home for a small fraction of the cost

sure it will put millions of people out of work....... and now you understand why current economic models are fundamentally flawed and doomed to failure (its inevitable that most people are going to have their jobs automated at some time or another what happens when the corporations no longer need workers as is increasingly the case?)

Folks. The 3D printing industry is still in its infancy. Just like everything else that was expensive initially, it will become cheaper as time progreses and with further innovations/enhancements to the technology itself Be patient. I'm sure for many(filthy rich) its a hobby but from technology perspective, it has received the attention from the manufacturing sector for crucial components.

reply to post by winofiend

Our transhumanist overlords will be playing with their atomic scale nanotech printers by then. ABS printers will be a novelty of the past. Again, although this is just the infancy stage, the upside to this tech is enormous.

edit on 27-2-2013 by METACOMET because: (no reason given)

Actually, they'll be using perturbations of the quantum foam to "instantiate" instead of 3d printing...

reply to post by dainoyfb


its feasible, by designing canals and structural beams and shafts on the 'injection' / printing patterns.

Not to mention that if we could come up with some even better polymer as the input material, steel could indeed become a thing of the past -- something along the lines of inexpensive carbon fiber...

reply to post by grey580


I would be making myself an effing Lamborghini or something......Who would want to make this joke of a car?

I would strip down my STI and put it in my new Lamborghini I made.....Sorry pipe dreams here I guess....

This new stuff is awesome to see though......People have the mind to do absolutely anything, and we are starting to see more of that each and every day!!

Seriously, it's a different scalability model:

a) conventional tooling for making hardware (including cars) is very expensive, but is super optimal and can scale to fast and massive production. The tooling can be made to process ANY material. At the same time, due to specialization, It's almost impossible to use for prototyping.

b) 3D printers are very expensive, and can be used to prototype ANYTHING, and the same time they are highly suboptimal for performance for the fundamental reason they are UNIVERSAL TOOLS to make any shape - with one important caveat - they can't just handle any material. If you really want carbon fiber in your item, you are out of luck. And that's the end of the story.

There are reasons people use 18 wheelers to haul cargo, and Mini Coopers to do shopping. Theoretically, the roles can be reversed, it's just not going to work very well. So I really doubt that even after considerable progress, the 3D printers will become one solution for every manufacturing problem.

Originally posted by buddhasystem
There are reasons people use 18 wheelers to haul cargo, and Mini Coopers to do shopping. Theoretically, the roles can be reversed, it's just not going to work very well. So I really doubt that even after considerable progress, the 3D printers will become one solution for every manufacturing problem.

Definitely it will not be a one solution for manufacturing. But the principles of it can certainly be applied to certain segments of costly manufacturing processes (provided it becomes cheaper to own and operate a 3D printer in industrial sector). Defense and Aerospace are just two sectors where it can make a significant impact if made viable and economical. Who knows how it will/can impact the Medical industry. Who would have thought that someday privatized space travel rides would become a reality. It has become a reality though expensive at the moment but certainly there are few visionaries (in addition to bored and thrill seeking filthy rich individuals) that will make it happen. Think about Howard Hughes and his expensive prototypes but the Man was a visionary in his own rights.

NEVER, never under-estimate the human mind with liner thinking, for mankind is gifted with free will and thus fuzzy logic.

Today, what you see as 3d printers are merely toys for well heeled hobbyists and corporations, but it is the POSSIBLITIES of marketing the product to the masses that will ensure EVERY human in the least one of such toys, and it is through the economy of scale and mass production that will bring cost down and make it possible even for a nigerian goatherder to own one.

Under the capitalist and free market system, if kept honest and true, it WILL NOT be just one company offering 3d printers, but a MULTITUDE of compettitors, as each will ATTEMPT to gain market share through INNOVATION.

Today, those printers may print only polymers, but exciting tests are being published on daily basis of other type of even stronger and bonding materials used. It is only a matter of time when even GOLD can be synthesized from the air or through an augumentation of other metals as source.

That's only daily products. Think of other products, such as food and medicine. It can solve many of our world's problems. The money is there, and that is and will be what will drive entreprenuers in a capitalist society such as the west, which accounted for its progress and evolution, unlike communisim, dictatorship or religious theocracy which in reality are doctrines of regression for mankind.

And there is no need to fearmonger about such products replacing mankind. No robots can ever will. As I had mentioned on another thread before, had the washing machine robot replaced the housewife? Of course not, for the housewife serves more than just one function in the home. It frees up her time for critical task such as homecare, upbringing of the next generations and self developement.

So too will robots and techonologies - free us up to live to our potential, fulfilling tasks which no robots can do, such as our humankind's progression and evolution in science, tech, philosophy, etc to fulfil our destiny to the stars one day...

When the washing machine robot was created, many thought it was the final frontier. But in a matter of only years, the Dryer appeared, and since then, competitive models by many innovative companies came with INCREMENTAL improvements to the robot models, such as in timings and types of wash programming. Perhaps one day, the robot may evolve into ironing our clothes, or materials that just need a simple robust wash and needs no ironing at all.

That's the washing machine robot. Think then of where the future direction of 3d printers will progress one day, and the kinds of jobs both graduates and blue collar technicians will be performing JUST in these competitive industry, not mention the many thousand more other industries that need improvement and building upon existing tech to improve them all.....

2500 hours to make one car!

That's over 104 days each car. They'd be lucky to print out three per year.

3d printers can do some awesome things but, until they get the price down and make them work a little faster, I don't think we'll see any printed cars on the road.

Its good that people are testing the limits of what these things can do but if anyone really expects to drive one of these around any time soon, they've got another thing coming.

Originally posted by SeekerofTruth101
Today, what you see as 3d printers are merely toys for well heeled hobbyists and corporations, but it is the POSSIBLITIES of marketing the product to the masses that will ensure EVERY human in the least one of such toys

a) quadraphonic records
b) eight-track tape
c) personal flying car (prototypes do exist)
d) and even 3D TV

...aren't frequently encountered.

Ha, looks like you CAN download a car these days.
Take that anti-piracy PSA!

Originally posted by OmegaOwl
Ha, looks like you CAN download a car these days.

Let's take it one step further. Very soon, you will be able to download HUMANS for home-based DNA sequencing.

reply to post by maoklein


No, ABS is not as strong as steel and never will be. Any shape made out of ABS rather than steel will not be as strong. The statement in then title is blatantly false.

Originally posted by maoklein

Not to mention that if we could come up with some even better polymer as the input material, steel could indeed become a thing of the past -- something along the lines of inexpensive carbon fiber...

Yes, but that's not now as the title implies. Where is this magic ABS they claim is stronger than steel?

Why are you defending this ridiculous title? Are you surfing for things to argue about despite the strength of the statement?