A few hours ago at the booth of Local Motors in Detroit Motor Show pavilions ended 44-hour process printing car on 3D printer. Novelty called Strati (layers in Latin) looks pretty rough and worth shamelessly expensive, but the authors delightful Rally Fighter argue that this is only the beginning, and in the future will be the budget cars printed creative alternative to the factory mass market.
The brainchild of Italian designer Michele Anoa (won, by the way, 200 opponents in the competition) is an outdoor double buggy with enclosure made of reinforced carbon fiber plastic. 212 layers of the molten mass are sintered into a coherent whole using special industrial installations for three-dimensional printing. Of course, all mechanical parts, interior, trim, electrics and so on have to install it manually later, so in General the process of creating Strati takes five days and costs 18 000-32 000 dollars.
Of course, in present form this proposal were not competitive, but Local Motors and does not confer on Strati commercial expectations. First and foremost, this is a demonstration of prospect bol′šerazmernoj 3D printing, creative project and look forward to a future in which enthusiasts-designers and engineers will be able to materialize their ideas quickly and relatively inexpensively. Perhaps, in the coming years, these printers appear on the Local mikrofabrikah Motors, which by the end of this year there will be five. If the value of the imprint will reduce ten times, the enthusiasts will take these factories by storm ...