Tom Stanton developed a 3d printable system that converts a regular bicycle into an electric powered one. Biggest 3d printed parts are the motor mount and wheel pulley system. He modified the "Vilano Rampage" fixed gear fixie single speed road bike. The motor used this project is the Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 6374-149kv brushless outrunner motor with 6s 5000mah li-po battery.
Presentation video:
Here is the Q&A video about the bike electrification:
All the project files, BOM and instructions can be found at:
Vortex generators are small vanes that are mounted on various vehicles, mostly aircraft, to improve their aerodynamic performance. In theory they could be installed on a car and improve the fuel economy and increase MPG (or lower the liters per 100km for us Europeans). Since they are easy to make and design, there are several 3d printable models. They are also very cheap so you can make dozens for a few dollars.
Samm Shepard 3d printed vortex generators and made road tests with good results. He also explains a science and aerodynamic principles behind it.
Kyle also does a great job in simplifying the science behind it and also has real-life tests with positive results but claims they are only useful on high performance cars.
Autospeed magazine did some testing and achieved positive results in 2006:
Vortex generators on cars can achieve measurable, scientifically proven improvements in car aerodynamics – reducing both lift and drag. The Lancer Evo is probably the shape of things to come – expect vortex generators (of whatever design) to be used on new cars, especially to improve the flow around corners towards the rear of the body.
Positive gains can be achieved only by practical experimentation. That’s the downside – the upside is that the vortex generators are easy to temporarily stick into place with masking tape, and just as easily removed if they are not achieving the desired results. They’re also cheap enough that buying ten or so for experimentation is a good investment.
But they did have some negative results if they were placed on wrong places.
One of the commercial vortex generator producers, AirTab, did some testing and they achieved significant improvements on trucks. Due to their box shape, their aerodynamics is very bad.
Several research papers, like this one by MIRA show that the fuel savings can reach up to 3% with installed vortex generators.
Here are vortex generators mounted on a Sprinter van:
And user experience of RV owner:
Since vortex generators are easy to 3d print and easy to install and uninstall they could be great gadget to experiment with and see if you can save some fuel.
Josef Vladik from Czech Republic designed and 3d printed a remotely controlled Mars robotic rover inspired by Curiosity rover. It is all wheel powered and controlled with Arduino Mega.
Tech specs:
main control unit is Ardunio Mega.
for moving six 9g servos re used with metal gears and they are customized for 360 rotation
for steering six standard 9g servos are used
control is standard 4 channels
Powered by 2S or 3S lipo battery - 6V SBEC
Here you can see this DIY rover in action:
... and here is the rover going over the obstacles:
Here is the project homepage (currently unavailable) where the author posted build instructions:
Thomas Palm designed and 3d printed wheels for his RC Truggy car which can go on snow covered surfaces. If you have some basic CAD skills you can adapt them to fit your RC project.
Someone under nickname The_Great_Moo redesigned Kyosho Blizzard SR remotely controlled snow blower toy part, upgraded the performance and made it almost fully 3d printable.
Everything is 3d printed except metal nuts and bolts
He printed it on his Da Vinci 1.0 3d printer in some 40 hours.
I couldn't find the files but hopefully they will be released...
Here is video of it in action... it is small but it works:
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:
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.
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.
Michael Curry developed and built fully 3D printed RC vehicle. The car weighs about 70 pounds and required $700 of PLA filament to print, it was printed over the time frame of five months. The majority of the vehicle is 3d printed PLA plastic with some obvious exceptions like: the electric motor, some metal pieces, and the Delrin ball bearings. I wonder if the batteries are also 3d printed?
Also: could it be enlarged and driven by a person?
