Slashdot Mirror
A (Mostly) 3-D Printed Race Car Hits 140 Km/h
An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from a story describing the efforts of a 16-person team called "Group T" competing in the Formula Student 2012 challenge. They've created a car called the "Areion," described as the world's first 3D printed race car. "The Areion is not wholly 3D printed but most of it actually is. It was tested on Hockenheim race circuit and
went from zero to 100km/h in just four seconds. Maximum speed Areion achieved on the same circuit was 141km/h."
The car features an electric drive train and bio-composite materials, and was created using a printing system called Materialise.
More information in the original article: http://www.materialise.com/cases/the-areion-by-formula-group-t-the-world-s-first-3d-printed-race-car
Who has the 3d models for an ion drive?
Chief Thinker www.devotedskeptic.com
In honor of it being a slashdot car story, instead of providing the official slashdot car analogy, I'll provide the slashdot computer analogy to the story.
"Its like 3-d printing a computer case, and then having the media report the entire computer was printed, circuit boards and all".
Its just the exterior of the car that was printed, not the motor or the wheels or whatever. This is not to belittle the accomplishment... for 3-d printing that's a very large component to print, and also the stereotype of 3-d printed stuff being weak seems to be finally going away....
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
the article dances around it but it just sounds like the body shell was 3d printed, so when they say "most of it actually is" they really mean "the biggest part you see is"
Print me my goddamn flying car that I was promised, then I'll be impressed!
Very soon now, I WILL download a car!
What progress? Electric engines have been done. This is just a damned shell, albeit with some nice features.
Fake headlines to pull you in. Fuck that shit.
Any crashtest results at 140kph?
Anyone know why this design decision was made? Is it because the area in front of the console is the only place tall enough to place shocks and springs, while still having room for the drivers legs?
I know this is a silly question, but what exactly is it that these so-called Slashdot "editors" actually do? Given the never ending inaccurate summaries, the summaries with all the grammatical elegance of grade-school assignment, the summaries that are essentially just the first paragraph of the story, the summaries that reference rip-off web blogs designed for noting more than soaking up page views while that actual source is some other web site entirely... What exactly do the "editors" actually do?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
the efforts of a 16-person team called "Group T"
Actually Group T is the name of an engineering division of KU Leuven (T=technical). This makes it sound like they made up some team name.
It looks like the mold for the exterior body panels was 3-D printed, not the actual body panels themselves?
Please help metamoderate.
Team Photo: 1 Female... 21 Males. Don't girls like composite engineering?
46137
This is another bogus slashdot article - Anyone examining the photos can clearly see the existance of Dozer contruction towers! Disproving the 3d printed construction of the car body... And the picture of the team clearly shows an individual (at the front) sitting cross legged on a Fraggle!
I just wish the smelting furnace wasn't sold separately. Combine the two, and it's off to the races.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
...yeah, but I'd copy their model files and 3D print my own.
Perhaps they were afraid of what would happen if they reached 88mph.
You wouldnt download a car would you?
Fuck yeah I would!
The blurb is full of inaccuracies. I actually live in the city where this car was created (Leuven - Belgium). "Group T" is a college, not a team.
"Materialise" is not a program, but a company. I can look at their offices from where I work.
Topping out at 87.6133 MPH that's almost enough to make cheap time machines.
The title and summary are misleading to the point of fraud. Here is a (not comprehensive) list of things that they didn't print:
The frame (welded tubular steel, just like every other car in the competition)
The wheels and tires
The suspension, linkages, and steering
The batteries
The electric motor
The cooling system
The electronics and controls
The driver
What they did use 3D printing for was for the body panels, and probably some complex-shaped internal parts they didn't bother to highlight. But Formula teams have been using 3D-printing for various components (yes, even body panels) for upwards of a decade. Hats off to the team itself - nice car! And a nice big "give me a fucking break" to the submitter, editors, and Materialise PR.
... but when he looked out the window, he saw they were only moving slowly.
... a dangerous driver who didn't look out of the window all along... especially when (attempting to) drive at speed
1) I drive my shitty little Echo 140km/h on the highway regularly. It's somewhere between 90 and 115 horsepower.
2) Electric cars have been able to hit speeds higher than this since the early 90's
I live in Leuven, Belgium, where Group T is based, and they were showing off this car yesterday on the street. I didn't stop to look more closely since I've seen similar cars before, but I did wonder how the hell they made the patterned nose cone. It looked to me like it was injection molded, which seemed odd since a mold that big would be insanely expensive. Now I know better!
Hell yes I would!
Also remember when I said I wanted to 3D print a car's body panels and the responses ranged from "that's probably not a good idea" to "you're an idiot, 3D printing fanboy!" Well I am now engaging my smugface.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You don't understand what "autocross" is, do you?
the driver as well. Which would basically mean they could print out a robot with a sufficiently strong computing unit inside. (Which would again mean I could print out my next laptop without UEFI built-in, yeah!).
I like my spaghetti with source.
It looks like they have a few specs on their website: http://www.formulagroupt.be/pages/car
It doesn't mention their cooling system, but often these motors are oil or water cooled and have a radiator.