Local Motors Strati - World's First 3D Printed Car

[The Bman]

http://wot.motortrend.com/1409_local_motors_reveals_first_3d_printed_car_wvideo.html

The Local Motors Strati is the world’s first 3D-printed car. In order to showcase the future of Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) or 3D printing, Local Motors began printing the Strati at the 2014 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago this week.The idea behind a 3D-printed car is to simplify the design, eliminate the initial investment in tooling or the high cost of custom-built parts, and reduce the total number of parts needed to build an automobile, the company outlined in its project brief. Local Motors claims a modern vehicle has more than 20,000 parts, while the Strati has just 40. Total printing time for the single piece structure is said to take 44 hours with complete vehicle assembly taking two days. Other advantages include the ability to quickly change the design without the need for new tooling.

Developed by Oak Ridge National Labs, the hybrid additive/subtractive machine uses a large-diameter extrusion head for high-speed 3D printing. The same head can also machine surfaces later for more precise work. While mass production of 3D-printed cars seems promising, Local Motors acknowledges there is more research to be done such as designing the best structure, best materials to be used, and how to fasten other parts to the structure.Once those obstacles are sorted, Local Motors will integrate an electric powertrain into the structure. The flexible manufacturing company also intends to show how a 3D printed-car can be more economically feasible compared to traditional designs and manufacturing. The design was chosen from more than 200 online submissions from the Local Motors open source community.

Source: Local Motors

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Legro]

Is it street legal?

 

[lGNAl]

I would hate to see the crash test.

 

[YSSMAN]

Interesting that this is the design that they went with out of the 200 or so that were listed online. It had looked like that the Lotus Seven inspired models were winning, but, it looks like it wasn't the case. But, hey, if it handles well and is reasonably affordable, I'm sure that they'll sell reasonably well - just like the Rally Fighter.

 

[JMoney]

That's the worst idea for a car I've ever heard of. What the crap is the point? The idea of 3D printing is that people can create their own objects themselves. But they can't build this car, so why would anyone want this over something safer made of metal?

I'm sure the 40 parts claim is BS.

 

[Leggy1]

That's the worst idea for a car I've ever heard of. What the crap is the point? The idea of 3D printing is that people can create their own objects themselves. But they can't build this car, so why would anyone want this over something safer made of metal?

I'm sure the 40 parts claim is BS.

The point is that it would reduce production costs and complexity. Koenigsegg already use 3D printing for some small parts.

 

[sesselpupser]

The point is that it would reduce production costs and complexity. Koenigsegg already use 3D printing for some small parts.

Yeah, no kidding. Being able to print a car with a machine that can print just about anything else would do more than reduce production costs, it'd almost annihilate them; tooling is pretty expensive. And yeah, Koenigsegg print turbochargers, I think the big aero companies also use them to print certain parts too. 3D printing is the future, and it's projects like this one that will develop the technology - both techniques and the printers - to make this sort of thing commonplace. I can't even imagine how cheap it'll be to go from concept to production if you want to print the thing.

Also, you know how a lot of concept car details like crazy headlight designs and stuff like that get nixed because they'd be too expensive or difficult to actually produce? 3D printing can print some pretty complex stuff quite cheaply.

 

[Crash]

Interesting concept. 3D printing will undoubtedly be a significant part of the manufacturing process for many parts, and it's interesting to see what current state of the art technology can do.

That's the worst idea for a car I've ever heard of. What the crap is the point? The idea of 3D printing is that people can create their own objects themselves. But they can't build this car, so why would anyone want this over something safer made of metal?

I'm sure the 40 parts claim is BS.

You can 3D print metals.

 

[Grayfox]

That's the worst idea for a car I've ever heard of. What the crap is the point? The idea of 3D printing is that people can create their own objects themselves. But they can't build this car, so why would anyone want this over something safer made of metal?

I'm sure the 40 parts claim is BS.

What about the 3D printed gun.

It is not as safe as a metal gun

 

[JMoney]

What about the 3D printed gun.

It is not as safe as a metal gun

The defender was a good idea, despite it's melting tendencies, because anyone with a 3D printer could make one. That's not the case here.

 

[Peasantslayer]

First test drive.

http://3dprint.com/15139/local-motors-3d-printed-strati/

 

[Legro]

The defender was a good idea, despite it's melting tendencies, because anyone with a 3D printer could make one. That's not the case here.

So you are saying that everyone having ability to make a gun is a good thing?

 

[Leggy1]

So you are saying that everyone having ability to make a gun is a good thing?

Don't even bother...

 

[JMoney]

So you are saying that everyone having ability to make a gun is a good thing?

No, people with access to 3D Printers being able to make guns is a good thing, which is a small percentage of the population. It wouldn't make any sense to buy a $4000 3D printer to make cheap, limited-use handguns when you can buy good handguns for much cheaper.

Anyone with access to a 3D printer can make a cheap gun that's really only good for one use, which is ideal for what the gun is named after: defense. Instead of spending hundreds on a handgun you'll rarely use, you can pay nearly nothing for one and save money. Saving money is good.

 

[Zenith]

@Legro @JMoney689 @Leggy1 If only we had a thread where we could discuss 3D printed guns... We could call it the Guns thread... That way we could stop with irrelevant snide remarks in an otherwise interesting thread.

As for the car, I'm wondering what Local Motors is trying to do. It's one thing to build a proof of concept car, but another to try and sell it. With the Rally Fighter I thought they were actually trying to have a real business model off of crowd-sourcing, which is fair enough.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

That's the worst idea for a car I've ever heard of. What the crap is the point? The idea of 3D printing is that people can create their own objects themselves. But they can't build this car, so why would anyone want this over something safer made of metal?

I'm sure the 40 parts claim is BS.

No. That's not the point. That's not even close to the point.

(I speak from experience: http://taubmancollege.umich.edu/digital_tech/digital_fablab/printers/)

 

[niky]

So you are saying that everyone having ability to make a gun is a good thing?

Yeah... wouldn't that be horrible... people buying multi-thousand dollar machines to make guns that don't work anywhere near as well as metal guns!

I mean... it's not like people can simply pick up odds and ends and make guns, already... right?

Oh... uh... never mind.

While the technology certainly makes it easier... it's expensive and lies in the hands of tinkers and geeks. Untraceable, handmade metal guns already exist in the black market, for those who want them. I'd worry more about the guns already in the hands of gangbangers and drug dealers, rather than those in the hands of a bunch of nerds who spend all their time building things.

-

As for safety... there's no reason a 3D printed car would be any less safe than a comparable design made from something other than plastic. I know of several people doing 3D printed road car prototypes...

If there are any safety concerns, it will be with the design itself... not the method of production.

 

[TexRex]

That's the worst idea for a car I've ever heard of. What the crap is the point? The idea of 3D printing is that people can create their own objects themselves. But they can't build this car, so why would anyone want this over something safer made of metal?

I'm sure the 40 parts claim is BS.

The point is that it's possible, and perhaps even necessary. Widespread adoption of the process for things beyond mugs and trinkets incites further development of equipment which then increases the variety of products that can be made and brings down the cost of all but the newest machines. Cheaper machines means more can be acquired and products can be manufactured on a small scale locally without the need to ship them around the world. Not needing to ship brings down the cost of fuel for shipping things that you buy on a daily basis, in turn making those things more affordable. Don't be so quick to suck the air out of something that you think doesn't apply to you, because it's much closer to home than you [clearly] could ever comprehend.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

The point is that it's possible, and perhaps even necessary. Widespread adoption of the process for things beyond mugs and trinkets incites further development of equipment which then increases the variety of products that can be made and brings down the cost of all but the newest machines. Cheaper machines means more can be acquired and products can be manufactured on a small scale locally without the need to ship them around the world. Not needing to ship brings down the cost of fuel for shipping things that you buy on a daily basis, in turn making those things more affordable. Don't be so quick to suck the air out of something that you think doesn't apply to you, because it's much closer to home than you [clearly] could ever comprehend.

We had some Taubman people working on this.

 

[TexRex]

We had some Taubman people working on this.

Things like this are fantastic uses of the technology. The car's a bit silly, but like I said, its creation may prove more useful from a social perspective than a physical one. SLS and SLM are particularly intriguing given that they're useful for metal, but concrete is a great material when useful. Shame so much goes into producing it.

 

[JohnBM01]

It was because of this car that I recently became fascinated with 3D printing and what is possible with 3D printing. What this car is bringing about brings a certain possibility of if making your own cars may one day be possible. This car brings about a great deal of promise and a real insight into the future. Now you can look up other YouTube videos on this car, but I'm real fascinated about this machine and what this could mean for the future of automobile design.

 

[CinnamonOD]

I can't stop thinking what ricers will come up with when 3D printing is more accesible than it is now

 

[shmogt]

Cool. Everyday I wake up and think about buying a printer like this just to make cool things. I assume something really awesome would be a huge an expensive printer however