We have already reported on the Strati 3D printed car (as featured in the January 2015 issue’s TECHtalk). Now a California-based company, Divergent Microfactories, claims to have built the first supercar using 3D printing technology. For those unfamiliar with 3D printing, the simple explanation is that it’s a printer that is capable of producing 3D objects from a computer design. It builds up an object in layers by spraying special “glue” on powder following the guidelines provided by the computer drawing. However, these components tend to be brittle when subjected to loads.
Divergent has created its Blade supercar with a technically advanced process of using a laser to melt aluminium powder and create the nodes of the chassis construction. Each node looks like pole joints of an old-school tent. Here the poles are produced from carbon-fibre and join the nodes to form the chassis of the car. The Blade weighs just 635 kg, but is powered by a 522 kW engine of unknown origin. The result should be blistering performance.
The company suggests the biggest advantage of 3D printing is not the short time it would take to get a product to market, nor the low mass, but rather the minimisation of pollution and resources during vehicle production.