100,000 people watch the 3D printing of a car

It’s not the first 3D-printed car (that would be Urbee), and it certainly won’t be the last. However, it is the first to have such a big audience during its production.

The pieces of the Strati car were printed in one go under the watchful eyes of 100,000 visitors at the biggest industry expo in the United States, the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago. Local Motors, the company behind the vehicle, printed the body in 44 hours, before taking a few days to assemble the other parts (electric motor, cabling, seats, wheels‚…).

The 212 deposited layers of plastic were extruded from a CNC head converted into a 3D printer by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This imposing machine has been baptized Big Area Additive Manufacturing CI (CI to represent design partner Cincinnati Incorporated). The Strati is a project on a global scale. Entirely crowdsourced and open source, it was designed by the Italian Michele Anoe and is powered by the engine of a Renault Twizy.

Promo video of time-lapsed printing of body:

While the car generally looks pretty good, the plastic layers don’t have the same mechanical qualities as a metal body, especially when it comes to distortion after shock. Meanwhile, the printed parts on the Strati are body parts. The race is on for the first entirely 3D-printed car, including the metal engine parts…¶

Assembly in pictures: