#TechTuesday
Electric cars, self driving cars and even cars that work with human brain waves are the additions that have been made to the automotive industry in recent years. Now we have 3D printed cars. 3D printing technology has always been used, but definitely not with cars and not in the ways they are being used now.
We start by stating what 3D printing is in context to cars. 3D printing comes from making three a dimensional object which is in this case, a car from a digital file. It is made in an additive process of laying down successive layers of material until the object is created. From explanation, this is very different from traditional car manufacturing.
…a 3D Printed Batshit Sportscar
So there have been questions as to why 3D printing should be adopted for cars and these are some reasons:
It is a light weighted car: Automakers have sought for ways to make their products lighter over the years and the 3D printing technology offers that. A lighter car consumes less fuel which in turn makes it environment friendly. With 3D printing, you can either reduce the weight of car part components or reduce the number of parts used.
Material Loss reduction: With 3D printing, you build your car layer by layer thereby producing and making use of the exact amount of materials you need. Unlike subtractive production, 3D printing is more economical, cheaper and more sustainable.
Creating Customized Cars: Getting a unique car model from a traditional automaker is not very cost effective. 3D printing a unique and customized model however is more of a norm. Talk about getting a car owned by just you in the whole world. Most of the customizing can be done on the exterior, and a few on the interior too.
Ease of Replacing Spare Parts: If some parts of a car gets broken, replacing them can be a true challenge, especially if it’s an old one. The parts might not exist anymore. What to do then? But by combining 3D scanning and additive manufacturing, it is possible to reproduce rare spare parts for cars, and even to optimize them before 3D printing them.