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Car with easily replaceable parts that can be 3D printed. Aimed
at a low price for the global market. 3D models available for
download.
I live in a city, and simply parking on the street means I'm
constantly getting bumpers and side panels scratched up by
other cars. Each time involves
insurance companies, estimates,
auto body shops, and being without this vehicle for days to
weeks. It's all rather inconvenient.
At the same time, I care more about function than form and
don't really need some shiny 4-topcoated parts. Something
simple that works would be fine. Wouldn't it be great to send a
file to a local 3D printer, and be able to replace a panel myself?
Make it out of a recyclable type of plastic and I could just
recycle the old one and pay a pretty small price for the new one.
So the idea: This car would be factory made, but as many pieces
as possible would be 3D printable and easily removed and
reattached. The finish would not be high-quality, and this would
be marketed as a lowish cost world car. Parts would be available
for download, to be printed anywhere.
Demand for this product would come from the lower total cost
of ownership that comes with easily replaceable parts. It would
also come from the ability to easily customize components.
World Car
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_car
The phrase world car is an engineering strategy used to describe an automobile designed to suit the needs of global automotive markets with minimal changes in each market it is sold in. [Voice, Jan 09 2019]
Death of the linear
https://www.carbon3d.com/
stepping stone till a full wholistic liquid print [wjt, Jan 09 2019]
Fractal 3D printing
https://gizmodo.com...stronger-than-steel
Supposedly stronger than steel [scad mientist, Jan 09 2019]
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I like the idea, but sadly 3D printing can't handle car
sized parts, well, some can but they're so rare
getting a regular part sent will be faster. The
economics are also horrid for 3D printing. I love
drawing up custom parts for RC cars but a large part
is $40-80 even at 1/10 scale. It would be nice if
manufacturers could make files available for various
specific brackets/knobs/other small widgets. I'm
sure they don't enjoy managing spares when they
drop below profitability. |
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// 3D printing can't handle car sized parts // |
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Not yet. But soon, perhaps sooner than expected. There's big money to be made and lots of companies are interested, for all sorts of applications - vide NASA's "Mars Printer" project*. |
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The issue is more likely guaranteeing that any printed parts meet the original specification to meet safety criteria. |
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*Don't get excited. NASA don't have the technology to 3D-print an entire planet** - they're simply proposing to send a 3D printer on a manned Mars mission so that parts can be manufactured on site, as required. |
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**although there are some life-forms that can, Squire Trelane of Gothos among them. |
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(+) There are videos of people printing their own tail-light covers, knobs and such, so bumpers aren't too far behind... or ahead. |
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// people printing their own ... knobs and such // |
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Great, the logical progression of Sturton's inexplicable fascination with misusing photocopiers. |
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It's whoever has to clean the glass afterwards that we feel sorry for. |
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Seems like an engineering problem more than anything. I can
design a bumper made up of 100 replaceable pieces, each
small enough to print on my home 3D printer. |
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Sure, but it would weigh far too much. There's this
problem of handling, rotational inertia in bad places
like extremities. |
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What you need are flat panels and simple beams
which are stock, and possibly 3D printed joint
interfaces where they connect together. |
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Printing a fractal-like beam can result in a beam that is
stronger then steel. See link. I'm sure the 10,000x
example is irrelevant for practical purposes, but with 3D
printing it is possible to create light weight mostly hollow
structures with internal bracing having a very high
strength to weight ratio. A steel beam of the same shape
would of course be even stronger, but would be very
difficult to construct. |
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Efficiently connecting smaller parts would be much
harder. Connections with bolts or any other snap-
together system requires a lot more material around
those point loads, probably losing a lot of the advantage
of this method. |
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One possibility for manufacturing a multi-part piece with
complex internal structure might be to take the design,
split it along a plane and fill the cut with a thin layer of
material on both sides of the plane. Find some way to
bond these two planes together, and that will effectively
connect all internal members. Now having that extra
plane of material through the piece might not be ideal,
but probably isn't highly detrimental. Depending on
the method of bonding, that plane of material might be
fairly thin. |
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// Someone could set up a smack-in-the-teeth-starter type
thing // |
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I don't imagine this concept will be very popular if it only
works for crank-start cars. |
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Elon Musk is far too rich to be called a crank; you have to call him "eccentric" or "idiosyncratic". |
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