Posted on 08/04/2015 8:18:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
A California automotive start-up is hoping their prototype supercar will redefine car manufacturing. The sleek race car dubbed 'Blade' didn't come off an assembly line - but out of a 3D printer.
Kevin Czinger of Divergent Microfactories has spent most of his career in the automotive industry. One day he realized that no matter how fuel-efficient or how few tailpipe emissions the modern car has, the business of car manufacturing is destroying the environment.
"3D printing of metal radically changes that. By looking at 3D printing not for that overall structure but to create individual modular structures that can be combined, that 3D printing transforms everything," said Czinger during an interview with Reuters in Silicon Valley.
According to Czinger, 3D printing transforms everything by changing the way the structural components of cars are fabricated. Currently cars are pieced together on long assembly lines inside large factories that use massive amounts of energy. Even the most fuel-efficient car has a large carbon footprint before ever leaving the plant....
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
That isn't a large carbon footprint! That's a bigfoot footprint!!!
How do you feed parts to the 3D printers? How many 3D printers do you need to make the number of vehicles demanded? How large a building will you need to house all those 3D printers, the piles of raw materials, and the mechanisms to move all that stuff through the plant?
Is it really going to take that much less space and energy than a highly efficient robotic assembly line?
The real weaselly move he makes is near the end of the article where he starts talking about the efficiency of electric vehicles and totally forgets about the manufacturing, not to mention that his first car has 700hp, which is totally over-the-top when it comes to efficiency.
The BMW i8 is made mostly of carbon fiber, has a 3 cylinder gasoline engine along with electric motors, seats 4 and costs about the same as the top of the line Tesla. It could easily be built with 3D printers and probably will be.
Sounds like some sort of bait and switch.
No, carbon fiber can now be 3D printed:
Impossible Objects Receives $2.8m Investment to 3D Print with Kevlar, Fiberglass & Carbon Fiber
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3242993/posts
3D Printing continuous carbon fiber composites?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3151060/posts
The i8 cost quite a bit more than the top end Tesla, about $30,000 more base model versus base model ($120K versus $150K), at least here in Ontario. Also the Tesla gets a lot more mileage, but the i8 is a very nice looking car. Co-workers own both, one has a Tesla and the other an i8, the Tesla owner managed a drive from Toronto down to Florida and back, with some planning but enough mileage to do it. So for practicality the Tesla wins, but the i8 wins in the looks department :)
The i8 doesn’t really need recharging if one uses the gas engine, only costs about $136,000 here and is back-ordered to 2017. There will probably be an i5 or i6 to compliment the i8 and i3.
Yeah that’s true but you basically lose all the fuel efficiency value and I believe the performance mode requires both electric and gas engine to be running.
This is a 1+1 encapsulated motorcycle.
“The 85 kWh car” is a 5+2 that seats 5 full-sized adults plus 2 5-12 year old children.
No kidding this “blade” can be 3x as efficient particularly with all the luxury and safety equipment absent.
What is the range? How big of a natural gas tank can you put in that little vehicle?
Any startup can talk fantastical specifications but I will believe when they have all the safety issues homogenized for sale in the US and has a Monroney sticker with EPA certified fuel efficiency numbers and stated range. And an MSRP.
Concept car easy on the eyes … and wallet ($6,800 and gets 87 mpg)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3054407/posts
Elio is another 1+1 and gets 48 city and 87 highway.
Prius gets 51 city and 48 highway with next one rumored to get 60 city.
I am not going to buy an Elio but I would like to see how it fares in the market and let the consumers decide Elio’s fate.
I hope it does not get nixed by the financiers and bureaucrats that hold the EPA’s Advanced Powertrain Loan Program purse strings.
The same can be said about almost any appliance, stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer, you get the picture. Not everything can be made cheaper while maintaining acceptable quality, performance, and service life.
Remember; If your only tool is a claw hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail...
Laser sintered powdered metal can make strong parts that are not suitable for use as pressure vessels (valve bodies, fuel injectors, &c). You can use copper infiltration to plug up all the leaks but it drives up costs. You may as well use a machined casting for best performance/$cost.
Regards,
GtG
Carbon fiber is a very interesting material, however it is still a very expensive material. The raw material is currently about 3x the cost of a comparable plastic resin.
Right now it is also a very complex manufacturing process, which adds to the cost and makes it extremely expensive. A finished auto hood (for example) that is painted to the OEM standards costs approximately 20x the same part in a comparable plastic resin, which is still considerably more expensive than sheet metal!
Dow is working very hard to improve cycle time with carbon fiber and to make the part mfg process into an Injection Molded type operation. However, at this point it is still not affordable for the high volume B, C, CD and D platforms at the OEM’s.
That said, it is a great application on the lower volume, high end offerings in the market. I haven’t seen the BMW you referenced, but at that price it does make sense. I have seen the Corvette hoods and evaluated Roush (Ford) SVT programs....
It is a material that everyone wants, but can’t afford yet! I am hoping to see some progress from a couple of manufacturers in a meeting this afternoon!
Research Backed By BMW Halfway To Carbon-Fiber Cost 90% Lower
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1094905_research-backed-by-bmw-halfway-to-carbon-fiber-cost-90-lower
Very good article, thank you. I have sent it along to the powers that be.
Well it should appeal to the DC crowd...
I know GM uses hot forged PM con rods and pinion blanks for trans gears.
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