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| The Strati city car. (Photo: Local Motors) |
IN what the company has dubbed “the third Industrial Revolution”,
crowd-sourced car-building company Local Motors has this week announced the
winner of its first “3D Printed Car Design Challenge”, to be printed at the
International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago.
Arizona-based Local Motors says on its website it builds local
motors for local economies, using micro factories. It helps designers realise
their visions through low-volume manufacturing, taking a concept from design to
rolling models in a matter of months. The 3D Printed Car Design Challenge aimed
to show how this can be done by exploiting the advantages of 3D design, and over
200 designers entered the contest
Michele Anoe of Italy’s Strati design won, impressing the judges
with its complex 3D surfacing and modular panels. One of the requirements for
the challenge was for the car to be “purpose built for the urban transportation
needs of Chicago” and the Strati, which resembles a futuristic beach buggy,
raises interesting questions about the style demands of Generation Zee.
Anoe won $5 000 (over R53 000) and his car will be 3D printed in on
the floor of the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in
September.
His printed car will be driven by a Renault Twizzy drivetrain, but
electric motors of any size will be determined by the drivers’ needs.
Local Motors will use a hybrid additive/subtractive 3D printer that
was developed at Oak Ridge National Labs to print the Strati.
This 3D printer has a large diameter extrusion head that can
quickly build up layers of molten materials at high speed. The same head can
then router and machine the surfaces to precise specifications. This means that
we can create car-scale forms very quickly and freely to machined precision, but
without the necessity of forming tools, etc. The challenges are to figure out
what the best structure looks like and what materials should be used and when,
as well as what is the best way to fasten to that structure, and so on.
Motor Authority reports The Association For Manufacturing
Technology (AMT) will be the first customer for the vehicle, which praises Local
Motors for its disruptive take on manufacturing and design. “The innovations
they are driving in the design, manufacture and sale of vehicles has been
empowering individual innovators since 2007,” adds AMT.
The eventual vehicle aims to deliver a sustainable, green product,
one that reduces production cost but also creates job opportunities.
