It took the American company Local Motors 44 hours to 3D-print a car.
The Strati was unveiled at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. The car’s chassis, body, seats, and dashboard were printed at the company’s headquarters in Arizona. Local Motors has borrowed all other parts — an electric motor, suspension, wheels and tyres — from a car built using conventional methods.
The Strati consists of 40 parts and that is why it didn’t take that long to build it. Naturally, printing a full-scale car with nearly 20,000 parts will take much more time. Then again, Local Motors plans to bring down printing time needed to complete 40 parts from 44 hours to 660 minutes.
The American company is sure it has great perspectives and quite soon this method of building cars will not be surprising anymore. The Strati will hit production in the end of this year. The price of similar 3D printing is in the range from $18,000 to $30,000. However, the printing pioneers do not disclose any details on the technical specifications.
