Road-ready 3D-printed car on the way

News: a fuel-efficient 3D-printed car is set to hit the road in two years, according to its US-based manufacturer RedEye On Demand.

The three-wheeled, two-passenger vehicle comprises 40 large 3D-printed thermoplastic parts, compared to the hundreds of parts found in a normal car.

The URBEE 2 is being developed by RedEye On Demand and its parent company, 3D printer maker Stratasys, in collaboration with KOR EcoLogic.

So far in its development, 3D printing has largely been used to produce unique or customisable items in single editions or small runs, but the arrival of the URBEE 2 suggests it could also be applied to mass production on a huge scale.

"A future where 3D printers build cars may not be far off after all," said Jim Bartel, vice president of RedEye On Demand. "URBEE 2 shows the manufacturing world that anything really is possible. There are few design challenges additive manufacturing capabilities can’t solve."

Once it's road-ready, the designers plan to drive URBEE 2 from San Francisco to New York on just 45 litres (10 gallons) of biofuel such as ethanol.

The car is a follow-up to KOR EcoLogic's 3D-printed URBEE prototype, which was launched in 2010.

We've been closely following the rise of 3D printing, reporting on plans to 3D-print a plastic house and a pen that sketches out 3D shapes in mid-air – see all 3D printing news.

Other cars we've published lately include a car with light-up wings by fashion designer Jeremy Scott and Audi's shape-shifting OLED headlights – see all car design.

Here's the press releases from RedEye On Demand:

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At RedEye On Demand, 3D Printed Cars Edge Closer to Production

Road-ready URBEE 2 will set new precedent for building fuel-efficient vehicles

Minneapolis, March 7, 2013 – RedEye On Demand, a rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing service, and its parent company Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) today announce a collaboration with KOR EcoLogic to produce URBEE 2, the first road-ready, fuel-efficient car built using 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, technologies. Targeted to hit the road in two years, URBEE 2 represents a significant milestone in the world of traditional assembly-line manufacturing.

"A future where 3D printers build cars may not be far off after all," said Jim Bartel, Stratasys vice president of RedEye On Demand. "Jim Kor and his team at KOR EcoLogic had a vision for a more fuel-efficient car that would change how the world approaches manufacturing and today we’re achieving it. URBEE 2 shows the manufacturing world that anythingreally is possible. There are few design challenges additive manufacturing capabilities can’t solve."

The KOR EcoLogic team will fully design URBEE 2 in CAD files, sending them to RedEye On Demand for building through Stratasys’ Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process. This unique process applies thermoplastics in layers from the bottom up, yielding parts that are durable, precise and repeatable. The finished two-passenger vehicle will comprise 40 large, intricate 3D-printed parts compared to hundreds of parts in the average car. The strong, lightweight vehicle will be designed to go 70 mph on the freeway, using a biofuel like 100 percent ethanol. The goal is for URBEE 2 to drive from San Francisco to New York City on only 10 gallons of fuel, setting a new world record.

“As a mechanical engineer, I’ve always believed we could use technology to help us solve some of society’s greatest challenges, like minimizing our dependence on oil and reducing ozone emissions. How cool is it that American manufacturing can evolve to tackle these challenges head-on? Our team is excited to launch URBEE 2, putting a next-generation vehicle on the road that will eventually be sold to the public,” said Jim Kor, president and senior designer for Winnipeg-based KOR EcoLogic.

URBEE 2, which stands for urban electric, follows in the tracks of its conceptual predecessor, Urbee 1. Produced in 2011 as a partnership between KOR EcoLogic, Stratasys and RedEye On Demand, Urbee 1 proved that 3D printing could in fact produce large, strong parts that meet accurate specifications of a car body. URBEE 2 will take the basic concepts of Urbee 1 to a higher level, including features like a fully functioning heater, windshield wipers and mirrors.

“With the Urbee 1 project, I learned that product design is nearly unencumbered by considerations on how parts can be made with digital manufacturing. That liberation is incredibly powerful and holds a lot of potential for the future of manufacturing,” said Kor.

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/03/07/road-ready-3d-printed-car-on-the-way/

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/149557-the-first-3d-printed-plastic-car-is-as-strong-as-steel-and-half-the-weight

http://www.urbee.net/home/

Getting 3-D Printing and Next-Generation Manufacturing to the Factory Floor [Video]

The White House’s budget promises millions of dollars to build a solid foundation for additive manufacturing

By Larry Greenemeier

Future of ManufacturingWhen we are unable to find what we need in nature, we make it. This in-depth report examines new technologies, materials and methods shaping the future of fabrication  »April 22, 2013

GAUNTLET THROWN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers made this robotic prosthesis (and the ball it's holding) using an additive manufacturing process known as electron-beam melting (EBM).Image: Image courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

"Additive manufacturing" offers manufacturers a powerful set of tools for making any number of products cost-effectively and with little waste, a groundbreaking development that promises to help revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector. But what will it take to get the process out of the lab and onto the factory floor? A generous cash infusion, perhaps unsurprisingly, will help—and it is now in the offing.

Pres. Barack Obama's State of the Union Address and, more recently, his proposed budget for fiscal 2014 lift U.S. manufacturing’s needs to near the top of the agenda. And unlike the low-tech production and assembly jobs that U.S. companies have been outsourcing for decades, the new age of manufacturing will rely heavily on additive-manufacturing technologies and materials, which are slated to receive millions of dollars in funding to move them out of the lab and onto the factory floor.

3-D printing is the most widely recognized version of additive manufacturing. Inventors and engineers have for years used machines costing anywhere from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands to rapidly prototype new products. All of the additive-manufacturing processes follow the same basic layer-by-layer deposition principle in slightly different ways using powdered or liquid polymers, metals or other materials. Each object begins as computer-aided design (CAD) or some other type of digital file, enabling designers to tweak their work prior to the actual build with little impact on cost.

At the low end of the scale, a MakerBot 3-D printer can build basic items like a hair comb or statue using polymer-based filaments. Industrial-scale, production-quality airplane or automobile parts, however, require additive machines and materials that don't currently exist. That’s where the funding comes in.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s fiscal 2014 budget request in particular includes $1.5 billion in that year alone to spur the development of new approaches to manufacturing (pdf) on top of the $1 billon investment the Obama administration committed to in fiscal 2013 to launch the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation, a group of up to 15 manufacturing research facilities across the country.

The first is the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) in Youngstown, Ohio, which will focus on development of additive-manufacturing technology and processes with help from a planned $45 million in federal funding. The Defense and Energy departments have already provided $30 million of that amount, with NASA, Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Science Foundation expected to kick in the remaining $15 million over the next four years. Manufacturing firms, universities, community colleges and nonprofit organizations have promised the institute an additional $40 million in funding.

The institute already has seven projects in the works. These efforts range from basic research about how polymers and other materials will react during the heating and deposition process to more industrial applications, such as developing a lower-cost, high-temperature process for working with thermoplastics used to make air and space vehicle components.

The animation below shows how one type of additive-manufacturing process—electron-beam melting (EBM)—works. EBM begins with powdered metal alloy placed in the machine’s powder hopper. The machine’s rake distributes a fine layer of powder across the build platform. An electron beam enters the vacuum chamber and melts the particles in a pattern as dictated by a CAD file. The build platform is then lowered slightly and the process repeats until the object—in this case, a turbine—has been fully printed.

There are several areas where the process could be improved, provided the government’s money is well spent: In addition to speeding up the procedure, manufacturers need to make sure these printed products are consistent from one assembly to the next. They must also develop ways to make more complex, detailed and multi-material objects. Still, with additive manufacturing on the national radar—and, more importantly, in the budget—it’s only a matter of time before most parts are printed rather than carved out of raw materials.

TREE-D PRINTING by Freedom of Creation

  

We have been preaching about the sustainability of 3D printing for a long time, but it is still quite difficult for most to understand the bigger picture. As all should know by now our transportation of the future will be limited to just emails and our stock is reduced to just files stored on our hard drives.

However, the base materials still need to be created from scratch and they still need to be shipped all over the world. We have been very motivated to find alternatives for this that truly democratize creation. This means there is a 3D printer available to everyone, that anybody can use and that uses common materials that are found anywhere on the planet. Let us introduce the most ecological way to create products. Here are our first results coming out of our Tree-D printer – printed in teak and mahogany.

We have been busy with our development now for over 2 years and so far we have been able to 3D print in a range of wood sorts from around the world. We have especially put a lot of effort into trying as many kinds of wood as possible, so the production can happen anywhere in the world. As long as there are trees. The material we use is most simple – just fine sawdust. It is difficult to find any cheaper or more ecological material than this. After all, it is a waste material. The binders we have developed are working well with most heavy wood sorts, but research is also underway to produce objects also from light woods such as Balsa. Our printing process results in a darker finish on the surface than the sawdust itself due to effects of the binder when it hardens.

Here you can see a comparison between a gray Laser Sintered Macedonia tray to a teak tray. The accuracy, which we have been able to create is quite astonishing with a very modest budget.

The strength of the objects is very similar to MDF, but naturally the complexity of the geometries we are able to produce is on a totally different level than compared to simple pressed wood. The process still takes about twice as much time compared to Selective Laser Sintering.

The digital 3D computer file we use to manufacture the Macedonia Fruit Tray.

The 3D printing process of the Macedonia tray in wood, picture shows the base material, sawdust and a finished layer of the Macedonia tray.

Cleaning process of sawdust of the tray after production.

We are currently looking at partnerships to further develop and commercialize our Tree-D printing technology. Later this year we plan to launch our first interior products using this technology. If you are interested in partnering with Freedom Of Creation please contact: michiel@freedomofcreation.com

http://www.freedomofcreation.com/home/freedom-of-creation-develops-tree-d-printing

http://www.freedomofcreation.com/home/freedom-of-creation-tree-d-printer-the-making-off

Bison Gulu
http://www.toolstation.nl/shop/Lijmen+kitten+tapes/Houtlijmen/Bison+houtlijm+extra+250gram/d180/sd2856/p88330

Shavings stool by yoav avinoam

israeli designer yoav avinoam, a recent graduate of the bezalel academy of art and design,
jerusalem has sent us images of his project 'shavings'.  the sawdust from all kinds of woods
have been pressed with resin into a mold that already contains all of the object parts. 
avinoam explored new ways of integration between the legs of the furniture and the sawdust
through expansion of the joints and the way the sawdust crumbles toward the edges  
to creates a new material, which was once destined to be waste. 
















the manufacturing process







http://www.designboom.com/design/shavings-stool-by-yoav-avinoam/

http://www.pro-ducks.com/Shavings-stool

50% sawdust by Kulla design

'50% sawdust' by israeli-based kulla design studio is a project that evolved from the development of a 
new design method based on material research. in this case, the combination of two different worlds of waste - 
wooden sawdust and plastic bags.

the project comes from the studio's desire to find new uses / purposes for sawdust and plastic bags, 
in which they have creating new aesthetic qualities and applications for the two materials. 
here, they have joined plastic sawdust with wooden sawdust, creating a homogeneous mixture to 
create a new product, without the use of any adhesives.


process step #2


the manufacturing process for '50% sawdust' includes creating a mixture of equal parts of plastic and wood sawdust, 
pressing it into an aluminium mold, and baking it. the heat allows the plastic to form as a resin / glue which affixes 
the materials together. the result is a firm, structurally sound material, that gives the mundane plastic bag and sawdust 
a new material aesthetic, thus giving them a new 'afterlife'. in this case, kulla design studio has applied their 
material research and developed a stool.


process step #3


process step #4



process step #5



'50% sawdust' stool



'50% sawdust' stool disassembled




top view



detail

http://www.designboom.com/design/kulla-design-studio-50-sawdust/

http://www.kulladesign.com/site/

wellprovenchair

The Well Proven Chair began with the discovery that within industry between 50-80% waste is created in processing raw timber into usable products. We decided to try and make a new material from this waste that usually comes in the form of sawdust, shavings or chippings. We discovered a bizarre reaction between this wood waste and bio-resin where the mixture expands up to five times its original volume into a strong, lightweight foamed material. We created a chair that uses this material as a seat shell, displaying the material’s natural exuberance which is complemented by the restrained and minimal turned ash legs. In collaboration with Marjan van Aubel with the support of The American Hardwood Export Council and Benchmark Furniture

http://www.wellprovenchair.com/

http://www.jamesmichaelshaw.co.uk/Well_Proven_Chair.html

http://www.designboom.com/design/waste-wood-and-bio-resin-chair-by-marjan-van-aubel-jamie-shaw/

RepRap: Builders: first tests building a powder-based stereolithography printer: part 1

RepRap: Builders: first tests building a powder-based stereolithography printer: part 1

http://builders.reprap.org/2010/02/first-tests-building-powder-based_25.html

http://reprap.org/wiki/SLS_Printer

An Open Source Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printer for Rapid Manufacturing in Wax

Motivation:
The current leading open source 3D printers print only in ABS or PLA and are restricted both by the limitations inherent in these materials and by the limitations of the FDM process. Though these printers are entirely capable of self-replication and of producing parts for a variety of light-duty applications, they cannot produce pieces that can replace the cast aluminum parts found in power machinery, CNC equipment, or in numerous other high-strength applications.

Goals:
The goal of this project is to provide a method for rapidly manufacturing complex pieces in metal by manufacturing a wax "positive" of the object, which is then used to make a mold for the lost wax casting process. Current metal rapid manufacturing techniques rely on high-power lasers, plasma jets, or electric arcs to sinter metal powder. This approach sidesteps the higher costs and dangers of these high-power systems in favor of a relatively low power laser-sintering technique.

A complete report on the project with more technical details can be found here. A summary of this project can also be found on the RepRap Wiki

 



Open Source Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printer for Wax by Andreas Bastian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.andreasbastian.com/3dp/3dp.html.

http://andreasbastian.com/3dp/3dp.html

Dutch architects to use 3D printer to build a house

News: Dutch architecture studio Universe Architecture is planning to construct a house with a 3D printer for the first time.

The Landscape House will be printed in sections using the giant D-Shape printer, which can produce sections of up to 6 x 9 metres using a mixture of sand and a binding agent. Update: read our interview with Universe Architecture's Janjaap Ruijssenaars about this project.

Architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of Universe Architecture will collaborate with Italian inventor Enrico Dini, who developed the D-Shape printer, to build the house, which has a looping form based on a Möbius strip.

3D printing website 3ders.org quoted Ruijssenaars as saying: "It will be the first 3D printed building in the world. I hope it can be opened to the public when it's finished.”

The team are working with mathematician and artist Rinus Roelofs to develop the house, which they estimate will take around 18 months to complete.

The D-Shape printer will create hollow volumes that will be filled with fibre-reinforced concrete to give it strength. The volumes will then be joined together to create the house.

In 2009 architect Andrea Morgante used the D-Shape printer to create a 3m high pavilion, which was the largest object ever created on a 3D printer at the time.

In October last year, architects Softkill Design unveiled a proposal to print a house based on bone structures.

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/01/20/dutch-architects-to-use-3d-printer-to-build-a-house/

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130115-dutch-architect-to-build-endless-house-with-3d-printer.html

http://www.d-shape.com/index.htm