So, the question is, to what extent could cars be made by continuous extrustion?

I'm thinking of an extruder, similar in width and height to the length and height (respectively) of a car, that can extrude metal, glass, rubber and various thermoplastics in parallel from multiple ports. The extrusion would be sliced into lengths which are the width of a car (i.e., the machine extrudes the cars sideways), requiring only the addition of side-panels to each vehicle.

I'm reasonably sure that a workable car body with bench seats could be produced in this way. Engines would be trickier, as would cup holders.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 29 2014

Heavy Press Program http://en.wikipedia...Heavy_Press_Program
Not really relevant, but reminded me of this. [xaviergisz, Jul 30 2014]

Car_20Toothpaste another type of extruded car.... one of my better ideas I believe but not popular in the colonies [xenzag, Jul 30 2014]

Richard Prince Untitled 2008 https://farm4.stati...94_c2020392b1_c.jpg
[xenzag, Jul 31 2014]

You could call it an Extrudabaker.
-- xenzag, Jul 29 2014


Perhaps you should be thinking in terms of 3D printing, instead of extrusion. Same effect with possibilities for much greater attention to detail, if the the printer delivers its output sideways, and the car comes out front-end-first.
-- Vernon, Jul 30 2014


Doing some train passenger cars first, would help develop the technology.
-- popbottle, Jul 30 2014


// large injection moulded parts//

//3D printing//

Nah. Those are already baked. Extrusion or nothing.

It would require some rethinking of the design - for instance, the transmission tunnel would have to go.

But I reckon you could produce a workable body (requiring only the sides to be bolted on) extrusionally. The trick would be to use the design to exploit the extrusion process.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 30 2014


Oh, and yes, nice one [xen].
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 30 2014


To almost not extent. Extrusion produces the wrong sort of grain structure that you would need for many of the working bits of the car. It certainly wouldn't pass crash safety, the engine would leak at every seal, and destroy itself in a hot hurry.
-- RayfordSteele, Jul 30 2014


In the US, everyone will be specifying a doublewide.
-- bs0u0155, Jul 30 2014


Bake this up in miniature with a folded knife and a chunk of FIMO clay. Cut yourself a length, slice it into cars and microwave it up.
-- bungston, Jul 30 2014


Max - you might like some of the work of Richard Prince - see link I just added.
-- xenzag, Jul 31 2014



random, halfbakery