The Secret World of Printing Concept Cars in 3-D

[n2doc]

By Keith Barry February 16, 2011



The work that goes into building a physical model of a concept car is usually hidden behind closed doors, known only to engineers sworn to secrecy and similarly tight-lipped subcontractors.

Ask anyone involved exactly which companies use 3-D printing technology to create concepts and the answer will invariably be, “many of them.”

One company, however, has opened up its secret vault. Remember the Citroën Hypnos? We took great delight in teasing the automaker for their outlandish interior, but never imagined it could actually be built. Of course 3-D printing service I.materialise proved us wrong by printing up some pod-like seats one can actually rest in — if you dare. The same goes for the futuristic interior of the Renault Ondelios, another I.materialise creation.

For the 2008 Paris Motor Show, the folks over at I.materialise built parts of a concept car for Citroën based on the GT supercar from the Gran Turismo 5 video game. The only reason they’re able to talk about it is that the car is three years old, and they got the OK from all parties involved.

more

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/02/the-secret-world-of-printing-concept-cars-in-3d/

[leveymg]

1. CNC milling is really amazing. Translates sketches on a screen to a

finished form in any material in a matter of hours. Nice organic shapes, and actually looks comfortable, if a bit like the monsters in Alien.

[Drale]

2. 3D printers are cool

in middle school we had a class called applied tech and I got to use on in that class. Course that was 11 years ago, I'm sure the tech is much better now.

[Posteritatis]

3. They're sortakindaalmost on-your-home-desktop level now

I almost bought one for the hell of it about three years ago since there was an interesting-looking one I could afford, and I was in graduate school at the time which is generally the opposite of wealth. There's some impressive ones nowadays to say the least, and in surprising price ranges. I think the main improvement these days is in terms of resolution per price range - it's something I try to check on every now and then because I'd really love to get access to one of those for the purposes of spitting out models. I figure I'll probably find one I'd be willing to actively go and buy in the next year or two.

Of course, if you have $ohyougottabekiddingme sitting in your bank account you can get some absolutely mindblowing machines these days.