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Posted on 03/03/2013 6:34:52 PM PST by Kevmo
The 3D-Printed Urbee 2 Hybrid Car is Light, Strong, and Nearing Production
by Morgana Matus, 03/03/13
Nothing says “Welcome to the Future” like a 3D-printed runabout vehicle with a hybrid engine, three wheels, speeds of up to 110 mph, and capacity to carry up to 1,200 lbs. The Urbee 2 is the result of Jim Kor’s dream for a modern, sustainable vehicle that will someday revolutionize the way that we commute. The exterior’s lightweight construction of ABS plastic allows for a minimum amount of drag and fuel required to operate the car, and it’s stronger and more easily manipulated than steel. Able to hold two passengers, the Urbee could very well be the next big thing in urban transportation.
3-D Printer ping!
For the 3D printing ping list
3-D Printer ping!
You’re surrounded...
Here’s the PhysOrg article.
Kor Ecologic Urbee 2 car will move from 3-D printer to road
February 28, 2013 by Nancy Owano Enlarge (Phys.org)
—Let’s put it simply. An engineer named Jim Kor is printing, as in building, a car. The Winnipeg, Manitoba, car visionary is responsible for the Urbee 2, being readied for the road, intended eventually as an about-town car, with three wheels, and built for two passengers. It looks like a big, shiny red bug cruising down the road. Interest grows in its means of production and implications for car manufacturing in the future. google_protectAndRun(”render_ads.js::google_render_ad”, google_handleError, google_render_ad);Ads by GoogleThe Honda Fit EV - 100% Electric. Not a drop of gas. Learn more at the Official Site. - www.Honda.com If printing cars develop, conventional manufacturing plants might operate aside very small “cottage” plants deploying lights-out manufacturing. Kor’s company, Kor Ecologic, is responsible for the Urbee 2, described as strong as steel yet lightweight. (The motto for the company is “Reasonable Design.”) By using 3-D printing, there is a special focus on lightness but strength; he is creating large pieces with varied thicknesses. The Urbee’s car body will be assembled from about 50 separate parts. The team’s practice is to take small part from a big car and make them into single large pieces. The less pieces, the less car weight. The lighter the car, the more miles per gallon. The less spaces between parts and the Urbee becomes the more aerodynamic. The teardrop-shaped car has a curb weight of 1,200 pounds. The bumper, which is made in two pieces, required 300 hours to finish. The entire car takes about 2,500 hours. jwplayer(”VIDpreview10390”).setup({ id: ‘player10390’, skin: “http://cdn.physorg.com/tmpl/v3/mediaplayer/skins/bekle.zip";, image: “”, height: 375, width: 500, ‘logo.file’: “http://cdn.physorg.com/tmpl/v3/mediaplayer/watermark.png";, ‘logo.position’ : “top-left”, plugins: {”gapro-1”: { accountid: “UA-73855-14”, idstring: “VID: 10390” } }, allowscriptaccess: “always”, modes: [ {type: “flash”, src: “http://cdn.physorg.com/tmpl/v3/mediaplayer/player.swf";, config: {file: “http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=FOh_m9pPvDo";} }, {type: “html5”, config: {file: “”} } ] }); The printing process to make the car is called Fused Deposition Modeling. (FDM), where one lays down thin layers (0.04 mm) of melted plastic filament. The FDM approach enables tight control by the designer, who is able to add thickness and rigidity to special sections. (Kor likes to compare the fender of a future Urbee with a bird bone. As shown in a cross section of a bird bone, he said there is bone only where the bird needs strength, and the FDM process can replicate a bird bone.) Kor has been printing the body pieces at RedEye, a business unit of Stratasys, which uses 3-D printers to produce on-demand parts and prototypes. Kor Ecologic has drawn up specific design ideals that are applied to the Urbee car project..A few of them are highlighted here. “Use the least amount of energy possible for every kilometer traveled. Cause as little pollution as possible during manufacturing, operation and recycling of the car. Use materials available as close as possible to where the car is built. Use materials that can be recycled again and again…. Be simple to understand, build, and repair. Be as safe as possible to drive. Be affordable.” Kor does not have a high-priced toy in mind but rather an economy car. He has received orders for 14 cars. Most of the orders are from those involved in designing the car. Kor is presently planning to make one car and to drive it, when it is ready, with a partner, from San Francisco to New York City. They hope to do it on ten gallons of gas; Kor would prefer to use pure ethanol. They will try to prove without argument that they did the drive with existing traffic. More information: www.stratasys.com/Resources/Case-Studies/Automotive-FDM-Technology-Case-Studies/Urbee.aspx www.urbee.net/home/
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-kor-ecologic-urbee-car-d.html#jCp
don't think i want to ride 110mph in anything with only three wheels... specially when it's made of plastic!!!
I hope they ran it through spell check before they hit print.
Typos would be costly.
Back to bubble cars, eh? Cousin Itt would be proud.
If the 2500 hour number in the story is not a misprint, that means it takes 104 days nonstop to generate the body?
FDM and 3D printing in general is a rapid prototyping tool. Anyone who thinks we will see low-cost parts and products make by 3D printing will need to start by printing off a time machine. Sure the process will become faster but as Scotty famously said “ye canna break the lawsa physics!”
If you look at the pic of the internals, it’s got quite a massive tube frame chassis and roll cage which makes the 1200 lb weight seem dubious.
Also 10 hp is pretty weak, even with e-assist for acceleration.
It’s a start. It is a bit of a disruptive technology, for firearms and soon cars. Eventually with an open-source approach and a cottage industry, cars like this project would overtake the current industry within 15 years.
One cannot choose how one will die, but for me it won’t be in that death trap.
Three wheels are fun. The Morgan 3 wheel from the 1930s was both fun and fast—especially the super sport. I would like to see a return to these small fast fun cars—mileage was great. It used a two cylinder motorcycle engine.
Three wheels means that it can be licensed as a motorcycle. I would love one.
"Phony baloney plastic banana good time rock n roll"
Hilarious video. What a piece of junk.
All this discussion of building things using printers has me confused. I always thought 3D printing was for rapid prototyping, not production. It’s pretty time consuming to lay down 40 micron layers. Time machine, indeed...but it might be easier to accelerate these printers to 0.99999C.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
How do we know he isn’t the fellow who invented it?
Morgan is still in business and makes both three and four-wheel cars.
They still make them:
http://www.morgan3wheeler.co.uk/home.html
A review:
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/convertibles/1208_2013_morgan_3_wheeler_first_drive/
According to the Wikipedia page, they have a US spec model, too.
It needs a satin interior. They can just use it as your coffin after you take it on the highway
the most famous use of this wheel configuration was
Richard Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller’s Dymaxion car of 1933
Uhhh, we have a design problem. I have been on 3 wheel motor cycles and they are not stable. 110 MPH on 3 wheels, not only no, but H/NO.
You beat me too it. But we agree.
I should have read all the posts before I commented. My bad habit.
yeah, something doesn't add up here
Yup, it's gonna need a helmet (in most states)
100%
the picture in #6 is an odd angle but it looks like the rear has two wheels judging from how close to the outside of the car the one showing is and none show in the front, or is it a different car altogether
Had never seen the Morgan 3. I looked at your link. It has a single rear wheel and the weight distribution is forward. It is possible that it might actually skid without turning over.
The 3D printed car has a single front wheel and I would never ride in one. Not safe.
I remember saying similar things about Honda N600’s, which is what the Honda Civic was based on. We used to say it looked like 2 motorcycles stuck together. Nowadays, millions of americans drive around in Hondas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Life
That is the front of the car.
If they can eventually get around to mass production, it will probably take about the same time that it currently takes to produce a vehicle.
The advantage that 3D printing might have is that there could be significant savings in transporting only the raw material, instead of having to transport parts.
Three-wheel vehicles are unstable when the single wheel is in front. Where there are two wheels in front, and one in the back, they are very reasonably stable.
Check the Can-am Spyder.
not according to the blue one... 
Pretty neat. Weight far forward, 2 wheels in the front. Appears a pretty stable design. But it is a motor cycle.
2 wheel motor cycles are pretty safe on dry pavement. If the idiots driving cars make allowances for them.
OK... they are two different cars or models then
Anytime you see the words “sustainable “ and “vehicle “ in the same sentence, you can almost guarantee the rest of the text was written by some crackpot.
Anytime you see the words “sustainable “ and “vehicle “ in the same sentence, you can almost guarantee the rest of the text was written by some crackpot.
Maybe they could make it out of shrink wrap. Heat it up and it shrinks to casket size.
I’m guessing that he went with three wheels to avoid having to meet safety standards for cars- a 3-wheeler is technically a motorcycle.
Well, then, maybe you can take it up to the rest of these crackpots over at wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transport
brilliant!!! none of those pesky front and side impact tests with crash test dummies to deal with...
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