3-D printers are making cars!

A 3-D printer created this car in Chicago, earlier this month, over a period of two days.

On a Saturday morning earlier this September, the world got its very first look at the Strati. This electrified vehicle is unlike any other presently on the road. It rolls on four wheels, but its figure and chassis weren’t built in a factory. Instead, Strati’s designers used a technology called 3-D printing. It created those parts of the car in one lump, from the ground up.

“Compared to a typical vehicle on the road, the Strati certainly looks different,” says Greg Schroeder. A senior research engineer at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., he did not work on the fresh car. His organization studies trends and switches in the auto industry.

It took forty four hours to print the fresh car at the International Manufacturing Technology Showcase in Chicago, Ill. Over the next few days, the car’s designers installed extra parts. These included the car’s engine, brakes and tires. Then, early on September 13, Jay Rogers climbed into the car, began its engine and drove the vehicle onto the street. Rogers helped found Local Motors. It’s the Arizona-based company behind the Strati. Two weeks later, his team printed a 2nd Strati, and just as quick, at a fair in Fresh York City.

Justin Fishkin, a Local Motors official, sees the Strati as a window into the future. Today, car buyers are limited in their choice of a vehicle. They can order only what car companies have already designed. But in the future, he says, you may be able design your own car online and then get it printed to order.

Explainer: What is 3-D printing?

Manufacturing experts say 3-D printing has begun to revolutionize how they make things. The technology has been around for decades. But these machines used to be so expensive that only large companies could afford them. In the last few years, tho’, that has switched. Many of the machines are now inexpensive enough for puny companies — or even individuals — to own. Some local libraries make them available to the public. High Schools are beginning to use them in classrooms. Broad access to these printers means people can now design and print a broad multitude of novel things — from fucktoys and foods to prosthetic forearms with working fingers.

The car’s printer is a one-of-a-kind device

The technology behind the 3-D printer used in Chicago is an example of additive manufacturing. This process builds solid objects, slice by slice, from the bottom up. (“Strati” means layers, in Italian.) A mechanical arm moves a nozzle from one side to another, back and forward. As it moves, the nozzle deposits a liquid — often melted plastic or metal (but it could be food, concrete or even cells) — that quickly hardens or bonds to become solid or semi-solid. This creates a single, skinny layer. Once a layer is accomplish, the printer starts depositing the next one. (Imagine building a paraffin wax sculpture, layer by layer, using hot paraffin wax running in rivulets off a candle.)

“There’s a lot of interest in 3-D printing in the auto industry,” says Schroeder. Right now, the technology is particularly useful for building prototypes — or models — of cars or car parts.

To rival with current auto manufacturers, the 3-D printer would have to scale up in a hurry, Schroeder says. By contrast, he notes, a Ford F-150 pickup truck rolls off an assembly line at a rate of toughly one per minute. To print as many Stratis would require many more printers. Schroeder says he doesn’t see 3-D printing soon taking over for such high-volume manufacturing. But, he adds: “Who knows what will happen in the long term?”

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee designed the 3-D printer used in Chicago. Lonnie Love, a research scientist at the lab, led the effort. To build a machine that could print a car, he and his team had to overcome several obstacles.

Additive manufacturing often is slow and expensive. It also may produce materials that are unreliable, Love says. So for two years, his team searched for ways to make 3-D printing better. They built fresh machines and tested them over and over.

All of that work paid off: Their fresh machine is prompt and uses less expensive material than earlier printers. In addition, it prints a plastic embedded with fibers of carbon to produce a stronger material. This helps ensure the material won’t crack or break under pressure.

The fresh machine didn’t work flawlessly right away. The very first time they attempted to print a car, Love says, the process took six days. And the figure of the car split apart when it got too cold. Many attempts later, however, the scientists were able to speed up the machine. And the cars it prints now hold together. By the time Love’s group got to Chicago, the machine was ready for prime time.

Love calls 3-D printing a “game changer” for manufacturing. The technology is “changing at a staggering rate, getting better and better,” he says. At the same time, he says, this fresh technology needs youthful minds to help it grow. Designers who have worked in manufacturing for a long time are used to working within stringent thresholds. They may have practice with only certain types of materials. And they may be convenient with manipulating materials in just a few ways. But 3-D printing doesn’t have many of those boundaries: These machines can print almost anything a person can imagine.

That’s why Love and his Oak Ridge team bring in high-school and college students to help them. “Students provide a fresh fresh perspective on how to design something,” he says. “Seasoned engineers have practice with physics, mechanics and materials.” Both groups learn from each other — and by working together, he says, they produce a better product.

Power Words

additive manufacturing This process of creating solid objects by depositing material, micro-layer by micro-layer (or slice by slice) from the bottom up. It’s an explanation for how 3-D printing works.

engineer A person who uses science to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need.

engineering The field of research that uses math and science to solve practical problems.

high volume (in manufacturing) A phrase that refers to something that is produced in excellent quantities all at once.

manufacturing The making of things, usually on a large scale.

physics The scientific probe of the nature and properties of matter and energy.

power train (in mechanical engineering) The system of rotating gears and connected shafts that transfer power from a motor to the wheels (in a vehicle) or other device that is being run by that motor (or engine).

prosthesis An artificial device that substitutes a missing assets part. Such a prosthetic limb, for example, would substitute parts of an arm or gam. These replacement parts usually substitute for tissues missing due to injury, disease or birth defects.

prosthetic Adjective that refers to a prosthesis.

prototype A very first or early model of some device, system or product that still needs to be perfected.

technology The application of scientific skill for practical purposes, especially in industry — or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.

three-dimensional (3-D) printer A machine that takes instructions from a computer program on where to lay down successive layers of some raw material to create a three-dimensional object.

three-dimensional (3-D) printing The creation of a three-dimensional object with a machine that goes after instructions from a computer program. The computer tells the printer where to lay down successive layers of some raw material, which can be plastic, metals, food or even living cells. 3-D printing is also called additive manufacturing.

Related movie: