Local Motors 3D printed car

[Andres125sx]

It takes 40 hours to be printed, and 4 days for finishing. Usual cars have 20k pieces, this has 47 and they hope to make it with just 20 in near future.

It´s carbon reinforced nylon, and electric motor, seats, tires, rims and windshield will be manufactured with usual methods

First version will reach only 65km/h and the range will be 190-240km

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daioWlkH7ZI[/youtube]

For Wall Street Journal subscribers:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/group-3- ... newsreel_2

If not, spanish:
http://actualidad.rt.com/ciencias/view/ ... e-mundo-3d

[Morteza]

Very interesting. And thank you for the links and the video. 47 parts in itself is insane =D>

[andylaurence]

That's a lot of manual labour for one car and that's costly. The machinery is tied up for almost 2 days per car. It might be good for small volume special manufacturers, but it's no good for larger volumes. I wonder if I could email them an STL for my car and get a new body...

[Andres125sx]

That's a lot of manual labour for one car and that's costly. The machinery is tied up for almost 2 days per car. It might be good for small volume special manufacturers, but it's no good for larger volumes.

Manual labour? It´s not done by itself, but it must be a small fraction of any usual car

And 2 days per car (for the printing) sounds quite fast. I wonder how long it takes to manufacture any standard car from the engine block to the painting

I wonder if I could email them an STL for my car and get a new body...

Try! They will probably be happy making profitable that big 3D printer

[andylaurence]

That's a lot of manual labour for one car and that's costly. The machinery is tied up for almost 2 days per car. It might be good for small volume special manufacturers, but it's no good for larger volumes.

Manual labour? It´s not done by itself, but it must be a small fraction of any usual car

And 2 days per car (for the printing) sounds quite fast. I wonder how long it takes to manufacture any standard car from the engine block to the painting

It takes about 30 hours to build a VW Golf. That's 4 days (4x 7.5 hours).

I wonder if I could email them an STL for my car and get a new body...

Try! They will probably be happy making profitable that big 3D printer

I fear it might be a little expensive and a little heavy!

[Andres125sx]

It takes about 30 hours to build a VW Golf. That's 4 days (4x 7.5 hours).

You´re missing an unknown parameter in that formula...

How many people is working those 30 hours?

And that´s the time to put all the pieces togheter, they don´t include time at the foundry for example, they have all the pieces and that´s the time they need to put them togheter with the customer specs. If a Golf can be built in 30 hours, a printed car could be built in 5 hours or less. Mathematics don´t lie, 20000 pieces vs 47

I fear it might be a little expensive and a little heavy!

True

Maybe a frame? If you want to go electric, that´d save you some weight. Your wallet will suffer a little bit tough

[Richard]

I don't think it is appropriate to compare a nascent technology with the efficiencies of a highly optimised mass manufacturing.

While it is an interesting experiment to print an entire car, I suspect the pragmatic approach would be a printed chassis with printed body shell bolted on. That would allow a mix of materials, high strength for the main chassis with bolt on/welded body panels for aesthetics and flexibility to with stand minor scrapes.

I wonder what Gordon Murray thinks of 3d printing? He seems to think the future lies in a lightweight skeletal frame covered with a lightweight shell. http://www.istreamtechnology.co.uk/1/istream2.html

[andylaurence]

Agreed - my first comment was about how it's not appropriate for mass production. Where this could be interesting is in a custom car market. A standardised rolling chassis (spaceframe or other) that the printed bodyshell is attached to. Customers could design (or have designed) a bespoke body that only needs to have some key features (not touching the chassis and provision for lighting/glass). I can imagine having your own unique vehicle could be very popular. Now where do I purchase a 3D printer with a 4m x 2m bed...

[g-force_addict]

I wonder if I could email them an STL for my car and get a new body...

I think that's going to be the main market.
And it would be great if you could just E-Mail a 3D file and get the printed part sent to you by mail with a strength close to carbon fiber, or at least much better than fiberglass.

They could begin with fenders, hoods, bumpers, wide body kits, wings and so on and eventually move on to bolt on full re-body kits for Corvettes.

[mep]

And it would be great if you could just E-Mail a 3D file and get the printed part sent to you by mail with a strength close to carbon fiber, or at least much better than fiberglass.

Actually, today this is already possible. F1 cars do use 3D printed parts and you can also order your private part. For example this could be a rear wing for your sport car where you provide the CAD file for. Of course the material does not have the strength and weight of a carbon part but might be cheaper and more complex.

[andylaurence]

And it would be great if you could just E-Mail a 3D file and get the printed part sent to you by mail with a strength close to carbon fiber, or at least much better than fiberglass.

Actually, today this is already possible. F1 cars do use 3D printed parts and you can also order your private part. For example this could be a rear wing for your sport car where you provide the CAD file for. Of course the material does not have the strength and weight of a carbon part but might be cheaper and more complex.

It's possible, but not at full scale and not with the strength and weight of carbon. Shapeways offers a retail service where you could print metal parts for structural use and plastic covers for making it look nice. You might find that just doing it in composites is cheaper, lighter and stronger though...

[Cold Fussion]

It doesn't seem like it would be a good idea to print the chassis + body as once piece. What sort of properties does 3D printer carbon fibre have compared to CFRP?

[Andres125sx]

It doesn't seem like it would be a good idea to print the chassis + body as once piece. What sort of properties does 3D printer carbon fibre have compared to CFRP?

Not comparable

3D printed parts must be similar to nylon, or reiforced nylon if chopped carbon is used, but they cannot resist the same as a woven CF composite, at least for similar weight

[mep]

It's possible, but not at full scale and not with the strength and weight of carbon. Shapeways offers a retail service where you could print metal parts for structural use and plastic covers for making it look nice. You might find that just doing it in composites is cheaper, lighter and stronger though...

It is full scale. If you have a close look at a F1 car you might be able to spot some 3D printed parts.
Some parts are just shaped too complex to build them from Carbon fibre. 3D printed parts can be relatively cheap as well.
As I already said it is also possible to get your own wing for your road car or amateur race car. It will be strong enough to transmit the aero forces. It will be heavier than carbon but if you just demand a single part cheaper. Also you are more flexible with the shape. Let’s say you want 3 wings all with different shapes. Carbon comes then quite expensive with all the tooling.

[Cold Fussion]

It's possible, but not at full scale and not with the strength and weight of carbon. Shapeways offers a retail service where you could print metal parts for structural use and plastic covers for making it look nice. You might find that just doing it in composites is cheaper, lighter and stronger though...

It is full scale. If you have a close look at a F1 car you might be able to spot some 3D printed parts.
Some parts are just shaped too complex to build them from Carbon fibre. 3D printed parts can be relatively cheap as well.
As I already said it is also possible to get your own wing for your road car or amateur race car. It will be strong enough to transmit the aero forces. It will be heavier than carbon but if you just demand a single part cheaper. Also you are more flexible with the shape. Let’s say you want 3 wings all with different shapes. Carbon comes then quite expensive with all the tooling.

The cost for carbon mat and epoxy is quite expensive, but for the home builder wet layup is cheap from a tooling perspective. You can get away without vacuum bagging if you're doing non structural components like body panels and wings. 3D printing the moulds is probably fairly cheap compared to CNC or hand creating them, especially when it comes to complex surfaces.