World's first 3D printed car built at Detroit motor show

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Local Motors 3D prints Strati electric car on the floor of the Detroit motor show.

We first saw concepts of the Strati electric car back in June, when the design was finalised by a contest run by Local Motors.

Now the specialist fabricator has taken the idea to the next step, by demonstrating the 3D-printing process used to manufacture the car on the show floor of this week's Detroit motor show.

Local Motors say the 3D-printed car is a world first, with the chassis, body panels and some cabin trim printed using a mix of carbon fibre and plastic.

The Strati's 3D-printing process takes approximately 44 hours

The drivetrain, suspension and wiring are taken from the Renault Twizy electric city car. The Twizy components produce 3.7-12.7kW and 57Nm from a 6.1kw/h battery with a range of approximately 100km. Local Motors claim a recharge time of less than four hours.

The Strati's 3D-printing process takes approximately 44 hours to create the 212 layers needed to build the body structure. It is then machined before a protective coating of vinyl or paint is applied.

The conventionally manufactured drivetrain components are then installed, as are the wheels, resulting in a showroom-ready car.

Aside from the construction materials, Local Motors has also introduced a innovative process for assembling their cars.

Instead of large-scale central manufacturing plants which produce high volumes of cars, Local Motors instead plan to roll-out a number of 'micro-factories', which they say "employ an economy of scope by taking advantage of low cost tooling and co-creation, resulting in the ability to get products to market faster and in less time while using less capital".

The idea of the micro-factories is to have them located nearby population centres, reducing the cost of transporting vehicles from the factory to the customer as well as creating jobs locally.

Three of these micro-factories are already in operation - located in Phoenix, Las Vegas and at the University of Tennessee - where Local Motor's $US100,000 Rally Fighter off-road sports car is built.

There are plans to build two new micro-factories in Knoxville, Tennesee and National Harbour, near Washington DC in 2015. Local Motors hope to open 100 micro-factories across the world over the next 10 years.

Source: CarsGuide ·15 January 2015