Urbee 2: a real car printed on a 3D printer

Not so long ago, news appeared on Habré that NASA was going to send a rocket to Mars, many details of which are printed on a 3D printer. It turns out that there are other projects of already quite terrestrial vehicles that are planned to be printed on a 3D printer (though, except for the engine and other elements that you can’t print at all, at least not yet). One of these projects is Urbee 2, a car that is not a concept, but already a production model.

The author of the Urbee 2 project, Jim Cor, recently spoke in detail to one of the popular media about his car. The latter is a three-wheeled hybrid, which is created from a metal frame and 50 plastic elements. According to the developer, the car weighs only 544 kilograms, and its strength is at the level of the strength of standard cars.



To create a plastic case, ABS plastic is used, using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) type printing. FDM is a type of 3D printing when very thin layers of plastic (microscopically thin) are applied one on top of another, until the created object is completely ready. The process is so automated that developers put, for example, a bumper on the “print”, and leave to drink coffee (well, or work on other elements, also an option). After a few hundred hours, the design is completely ready. To create a fully finished car requires about 2.5 thousand hours.

Interestingly, in many countries and regions, Urbee 2 does not even need to register, as, in fact, a car. Due to its characteristics, Urbee 2 in most countries can be registered as a motorcycle. The car is a hybrid, as already mentioned at the beginning of the news. So, it is equipped with a gasoline engine and a battery.



Unfortunately, the driving characteristics of the car are unknown (i.e. the possible speed of the car is unknown). But the developer is going to drive about 4.6 thousand kilometers with just 37.8 liters of fuel. True, Jim Cor did not tell if he would charge the battery of his car while traveling.

Urbee 2 will be available soon, and there are already 14 preorders for it. As for the price, the prototype cost the development team 50 thousand dollars. Of course, if you run Urbee 2 in a series, then the cost of the car will be many times lower (in any case, in most cases this happens).

Via Wired