Here at 3D Rapid Print, one of the fastest growing 3D Printing companies in the Thames Valley, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.
On January 30th 2020, motorcycle manufacturers The Curtiss Motorcycle Company (Curtiss) of Leeds, Alabama, and 3D Printing company Fast Radius of Chicago, Illinois unveiled the Zeus 8, a 3D printed electric motorbike that is due to hit the market some time in 2020. Curtiss had been making motorbikes in New Orleans for 20 years until its factory was sadly destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. They relocated to an old factory they restored in Leeds, setting out on a new mission to make a sustainable bike that took inspiration from the earliest days of motorcycle design.
The Zeus was originally intended to be launched in mid-summer 2019. However, as this deadline approached, Curtiss’s suppliers for parts for the prototype were giving long lead times and had trouble meeting Curtiss’s design and quality requirements. (The term lead time can be defined as “The amount of time between the initiation of some process and its completion, e.g. the time required to manufacture or procure a product; the time required before something can be provided or delivered.”) This prompted Curtiss to turn to Fast Radius for help, with the collaboration being announced on August 16th 2019.
Both companies expect to collaborate on future versions of the Zeus, as well as Curtiss’s upcoming models, named Hades, Psyche, and Eros. Curtis proclaim that both the Psyche and the Eros have a top speed of 70mph; deliver a range of 100 miles in stop-and-go traffic, or 60 miles at top speed; can be recharged in half an hour at a commercial recharging station, or overnight at home, and have a replaceable battery pack. They are also intended to compete with the LiveWire electric motorbike from Harley-Davidson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.
Disclaimer: Featured image of “Cotton motorbike January 3, 1930” (as it is known on Wikimedia Commons) was taken from Flickr’s The Commons and has no known copyright restrictions. (On Flickr it is known as “January 3, 1930.”) It is nonetheless attributed to the National Library of Ireland on The Commons.
Recent Comments