Renault Trucks Shows us the Future of 3D Printed Engines

Renault Trucks shows how industrial 3d printing could drastically reduce weight and number of parts needed for a modern internal combustion engine. The weight is reduced by 120 kg and the number of parts is reduced by 200. This could lead to lower fuel consumption, cheaper engines and simpler replacement parts chain.





Company website:

http://www.renault-trucks.com/

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3D Printing Custom Car Audio Speakers

As I was searching to find what can I print for my car, I found Mark and his company. It is an excellent example how 3d printing can help a small company to make custom products. They use 3d printing to make custom car audio speaker boxes, pods and attachments that look vary cool.
They may run out of business when 3d printing spreads and Maker / DIY culture becomes mainstream ;-) Probably not, as they certainly have creative spirit which will enable them to thrive on the market.

3D printed A-pillar speaker pod:



3D printed car subwoofer box:




Here is the company page:

http://www.caraudiofabrication.com/

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Divergent Microfactories Blade car with 3d printed parts

Divergent Microfactories developed the Blade sports car with ultralight and strong 3d printed parts. It looks great.








Here is the interview about the car:




Blade homepage:

http://www.divergentmicrofactories.com/

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Free webinar on 3d printed car parts and car mods

Here is new free webinar from GoEngineer focusing on 3d printed car parts, car accessories and car modifications.

If you are interested in cars, car hacking, car repair, hypermiling, modding, car tuning and have access to any type of 3d printer this video will give you lots of useful tips, information and practical examples. You could theoretically make any plastic part needed for your car and customize it to fit your needs.

Webinar is presented by Tyler Reid, it is focused on Stratasys technology but the knowledge and is applicable to other 3d printers.

3d printed car parts presented here are:

• gauge bezel
• firewall feedtrough
• wire tee box
• throttle body spacer
• battery charging box

Here is video webinar, one hour well spent ;-):

Here is a picture of installed wire tee box:

Great tutorial, thank you for the content Tyler and GoEngineer team!

There are many more similar high quality tutorials, like:

3d printed jigs and fixtures:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/08/free-webinar-on-3d-printing-jigs-and.html

or 3d printed end user parts:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/07/free-webinar-of-3d-printed-end-use-parts.html

Here you can see another example of home 3d printers being used to make small replacement parts like AC button and cargo cover holder:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/08/repairing-ford-focus-cargo-cover.html

Update:

Here is a new webinar about complex geometry and 3d printing:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/12/free-webinar-on-3d-printing-and.html

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Using carbon fiber and titanium 3d printing in production of Koenigsegg ultra performance sports cars

Christian von Koenigsegg explains how his company uses 3D printing in prototyping and production of amazing hypercars. They use it in everything from prototyping of car seats and foot rests to titanium 3d printed main structural car parts. Performances they achieve trough innovative technologies are incredible.

http://www.koenigsegg.com/

Their cars are real high-tech beasts. One:1 model has ratio of one horsepower per one kilogram.

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Local Motors shows the first drive of their 3d printed electric car Strati

While there is no new information about Urbee 3d printed car, Local Motors is advancing their technology and they just released video of their vehicles first drive.
Only the inner passenger compartment and chassis is 3d printed while electric motor, batteries, suspension, transmission and wheels are not 3d printed but there is probably work to increase number of 3d printed components.

First powered drive video:




Here is a video of 3d printed chassis part:



Here is the video of their design challenge:




And here is the link to a page with submissions, there are some great automotive designs there: https://localmotors.com/idesigncars/3d-printed-car-design-challenge/

Local Motors 3d printed car design challenge winner 

You can learn more about the comapny an their 3d printing efforts to build printed car here:

https://localmotors.com/AlexFi/the-3d-printed-car-aka-direct-digital-manufacturing/


Update (21.9.2014.):

The Strati is finished and it is showcased in many places. Here it is presented by the CEO Jay Rogers at MakerCon





More details from this interview can be found on:

http://makezine.com/2014/09/20/the-first-fused-filament-fully-electric-vehicle/

Here is some more test driving and details on the Strati by Mashable:

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Future of 3d printing replacment car parts

Big companies probably won't allow printing of parts that could endanger car passengers safty if they fail because of liability issues, but will probably allow printing of  "cosmetic" parts and non-essential structures.
Maybe there will be secondary / grey market ... car parts can be expensive ... or hard to obtain in certain situations ...


Source:

http://www.youtube.com/user/romanmicagearguy?feature=watch

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You wouldn't download a car, would you?

... just you wait ...

http://www.replicadb4.com/default.aspx

http://www.replicadb4.com/post/2013/02/05/What-Ive-found-so-far

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Ford embraces DIY 3d printing

Engineers at Ford are given Makerbots. Another milestone.

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3d printed car parts by Objet

Video of Objet presentation models. There are printed on industral scale 3d printers, but still the technology is fascinating.
Video shows regular size fully functioning car dashboard printed, glued and painted. The joints on it are moving and everything looks very solid and detailed. After it, the functioning 3d printed car part is shown followed by some 3d prited industrial molds and skateboard. In the end there is working 3d printed hand drill.
First thing that came to my mind after watching it was how much I paid for some replacement plastic parts for my 2001 A-class. Few broken small handles and plating for seat adjustment. Too much I can tell you, not to mention I waited for them two weeks. I have a feeling that it would be much cheaper if technology was wider spread since the resolution needed to print those parts I needed is achievable by today's diy 3d printers.

It is taken on EuroMold with Jonathan Jaglom Objet VP of Sales Operations.

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