Car built with 3d printer

[oddlots]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Is it pets.com or is it.... no not Memorex but...

Somewhat excruciating question as always.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Well, for sure, we're not there yet. But the fact is things are improving at an accelerated rate. Look at where we are nowadays versus where we were a decade ago. There will be a tipping point that we hit as people start to mass produce with these tools. Just look at the huge proliferation of 3d printing services all over the web.

I suspect what you're going to see soon is a whole host of companies which take 3D printed prototypes and their Autocad files and turn them into mass produced items via very well recognized processes. Do this enough times, and the factories themselves become a sort of 3D printer.

The cost of assembling and tooling those factories are going to very rapidly come down in cost.

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)

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

Having a computer on your desk once seemed like science fiction, but now they're just about everywhere. Could the ability to CREATE anything, with a machine smaller than a television, be far away? John Bentley has the story.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

This one really appeals to me.. I know it's not going to make everything in the world suddenly free and justify all that money printing, but it's kinda neat.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

This one really appeals to me.. I know it's not going to make everything in the world suddenly free and justify all that money printing, but it's kinda neat.

A roll of duct tape would have been a whole lot cheaper that that machine .

[tastymannatees]

Re: Car built with 3d printer

I use RP for small electronic computer fan designs - upload cad file, quote is instant, confirm options of materials and finish, order and get the part in a day or two < $200 . This is real nice for someone who used to hand draw design, make blueprints for quotes and spend $1000 for a part 12 weeks later.

I have a Chess piece sample of a castle from one of the companies, the castle is about 1.25 inches high with little windows that you can look through and see a spiral staircase running up the inside with a 100 or so steps completely sealed, kinda like a ship in a bottle Idea.