Car built with 3d printer

[blazespinnaker]

http://www.autotantra.com/hybrid/201...ee-hybrid-car/

While we are not there quite yet things are improving at an accelerated rate. Think moores law but for 3d printers.

Now imagine the deflationary impact of all our wordly possessions built by these replicators.

[RebbePete]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

A couple of observations...

• The process they used only does thermoplastics. Although there are other processes that do sintered metal, it's not a compatible process, so you can't just "print out" the whole car. One place in the article says it's the whole "chassis," and somewhere else, the "body." I believe the "body" part, but not the "chassis." I don't think you can make thermoplastics strong enough to be the "chassis" (but I could be wrong - I'm not a mechanical engineer) No mechanical components seem to have been included, and you'd still need to assemble all of that.
• They didn't use a $1,000 "MakerBot" to do it, probably a machine that cost in the six figures.
• It's not economical for production, as they even state in the article. It takes just too long and the equipment is too expensive to subject to that kind of wear and tear.
• Even if the price comes down, low-end 3D printers for home or small business use will remain a novelty until we come up with products designed to use them. You can't, with existing or soon to be feasible technology, produce laptops, cell phones, kitchen knives, clock radios, clothing, etc. You can, however, produce kids' toys, model kits, promotional trinkets and housings for the above-mentioned technology.

- Pete
(my "day job" is a principal research scientist at a large company, and we've looked at this technology for some of our prototypes)

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

One could argue that a machine shop full of CNC milling and drilling centers coupled to ProE or SolidWorks is essentially a 3D printer with manual transport through the printer (people carry the parts from station to station and mount them in the machines).

There is a plastic injection molding shop called Protomold in Minnesota whose business model is based on this thinking.

You can upload a 3D solid model of your plastic part at their website, and if it's well-designed, they will quote it and take your order on-line; CNC machine a mold from aluminum; and deliver you a few molded plastic parts the next day, with 5,000 to follow if you like them. Not stereo-lithography prototypes, but actual ABS plastic production parts. Not $40,000 and 12 weeks to deliver hard steel tooling, but $2,000 and overnight to deliver injection molded parts from an aluminum tool. Radically revolutionary in that small world and a sign of things to come.

[don]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

And this near-future plastics-dependent technology dovetails with peak cheap oil in what way?

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

And this near-future plastics-dependent technology dovetails with peak cheap oil in what way?

Probably survives well under conditions of scarce oil. The plastic is derived from petroleum, but the rapid build cycle from standardized mold components reduces transport and so reduces the oil the trucks consume. As practices like this become widespread, the parts can be made near the point of assembly to further reduce transport energy.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Probably survives well under conditions of scare oil. The plastic is derived from petroleum, but the rapid build cycle from standardized mold components reduces transport and so reduces the oil the trucks consume. As practices like this become widespread, the parts can be made near the point of assembly to further euce transport energy.

This rapid customized production might also reduce scrap and stock. If making a production part costs you much time and money, you're going to order up a bunch extra (might as well, the extra are almost "free") just in case.

[LorenS]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

That "chassis" looks more like a fairing. I don't doubt it's all plastic.

That doesn't appear to be even close to a street legal car. It looks more like a motorcycle - the rules for those are much more relaxed and the mileage claims don't seem that remarkable for a motorcycle.

[bw]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Got a chuckle from your thread title. Had to come and read it to find out why the second printer wasn't enough. My car doesn't have any printers at all and it works fine.

[don]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Probably survives well under conditions of scarce oil. The plastic is derived from petroleum, but the rapid build cycle from standardized mold components reduces transport and so reduces the oil the trucks consume. As practices like this become widespread, the parts can be made near the point of assembly to further reduce transport energy.

This rapid customized production might also reduce scrap and stock. If making a production part costs you much time and money, you're going to order up a bunch extra (might as well, the extra are almost "free") just in case.

Wonder how this would stack up against a vehicle built both to last (no planned obsolescence) and maximized fuel efficiency, removing the energy needed to replace itself.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Wonder how this would stack up against a vehicle built both to last (no planned obsolescence) and maximized fuel efficiency, removing the energy needed to replace itself.

Clearly, your concept wins on total life cycle energy consumed.

[GRG55]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

And this near-future plastics-dependent technology dovetails with peak cheap oil in what way?

Crude oil doesn't play much of a part in this stuff. Most of these plastics are derived from natural gas and natural gas liquids derivatives...ethane, propane and butanes that are first converted to ethylene, propylene, butadiene and other intermediates in petchem steam crackers, and then further converted in petrochemical processes to various commodity chemicals including thermoplastics such as PET [polyethylene terephthalate], PE [polyethylene], PP [polypropylene], PS [polystyrene], PVC [polyvinyl chloride], ABS [Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene - ask your plumber :-)], and so forth.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

ABS, PS and other modern styrenes like GE Cycolac are the go-to materials for consumer plastic parts like the cases for cell phones and TV remotes, cheap toys, etc. Polyolefins (PE and PP) and PET are biggest in packaging, especially for food.
Nice to know they come from natural gas.

[don]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Clearly, your concept wins on total life cycle energy consumed.

If we lived in a rational society (that's funny ), peak cheap energy and the de-industrialization of America would provide an enviable platform for re-building along those lines.

[LargoWinch]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

3D printers:

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

3D printers:

Cool video. 3D printers aren't going to make my next computer CPU or car engine, but they do have real uses, even now, more than I realized before. Thanks.