Automobile manufacturing may give way to '3D printing' in the future

With a mouse-like appearance, three wheels, and hybrid power, it’s hard to imagine that this is a car that can drive. What’s even more incredible is that most of the parts of this car are 3D printed.u0026rdquo;, its manufacturer, the United States JimKor claims that this car called Urbee2 will be mass-produced. On February 28th, local time in the United States, KorEcologic released the world's first 3D printed car Urbee2 through its video website, and revealed that the car costs $50,000 and has 14 orders.　　The domestic automotive Ru0026D center-General Motors China Foresight Technology Research Center located in Jinqiao, Shanghai, has also realized printing 'automobiles, printing' a mold car in just one or two days.　　1, the printed caru0026rdquo;The material is mostly plastic 　　Urbee2 relies on 3D printing technology to printu0026rdquo; housing and parts. The main work of the researchers includes assembly and debugging. The whole process took about 2500 hours. The video released shows that the car has 3 wheels, except that the engine and chassis are made of metal, which are produced by traditional techniques, and most of the other materials are plastic. The weight of the entire car is 1,200 pounds.　　Urbee2 project leader and senior designer is JimKor, with 35 years of automotive and other industrial design experience. Traditional automobile manufacturing is to produce parts and then assemble them together. 3D printers can print out a single, one-piece car body, and then fill in other parts. It is said that the new version of the 3D car requires about 50 parts, while a standard design car requires hundreds of parts.　　2, printingu0026rdquo; only one or two days for model cars. 　　3D technology is no stranger to the automotive industry. In some auto companies, 3D scanning and 3D printing have been applied in forward-looking Ru0026D links, and the development of new cars has been greatly accelerated. At the domestic automobile Ru0026D center-General Motors China Foresight Technology Research Center located in Jinqiao, Shanghai, researchers said that in the past, it took at least two or three weeks to develop a new car and manufacture a part. 3D technology shortens the production time to one or two hours.　　In the laboratory, the staff first put the physical mechanical parts (such as the door trim panel) in the blue area and rotate them at different angles to quickly generate a three-dimensional map on the computer. According to technical personnel, the accuracy of the generated model can reach 0.01 mm. After adjusting the relevant data, another printer-like device uses the new data on the raw materials to make a new interior door panel. It cuts and polishes the wood according to the existing data. After one or two hours, the new door panel is completed.　　 It takes several hours to make parts, and it only takes one or two days to make a concept car. GM's Foresight Technology Research Center needs to produce a large number of concept cars every year, and the current concept cars are also built using 3D technology. In the milling room of the Ru0026D center, Ru0026D personnel are using 3D technology to make EN-V electric networked concept cars. In the past, a few people were needed to make a concept car and it took several months to complete. Now, as long as the design is completed, you can watch it in a day or two. To a very precise entity. u0026rdquo;. 3. Low-cost cars can be customized 'Once 3D printing technology is widely used, the traditional process of making molds in automobile production can be completely replaced, and the production cycle and cost are expected to be greatly reduced. 'Senior analysts in the domestic automobile industry pointed out that it takes time and money to develop a large number of molds before mass production of new cars, and if 3D printing is used to make molds, it is expected that the automobile manufacturing process will be faster and better.　　 For some niche needs, auto companies can also consider. For example, consumers want to make their new car door handles unique. Now such a demand is impossible to meet, because to make a new handle requires opening a new mold, which costs hundreds of thousands of yuan. If 3D printing can be used, the cost will only increase a little.　　 But for 3D printing to make the entire car, some professionals have also put forward different views. The entire car needs to use a variety of different materials, the plastic of the wiper is different from the plastic of the center console, and there is a large amount of metal. 'The analyst pointed out that if you want to print the entire car, the printer must deal with all materials, so that they can adapt to the printing process, and enable these materials to achieve their functions. (The above article was edited and compiled by the metal laser cutting machine from the Internet. Please indicate the source for reprinting again!)