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 June 29th 2021, 3D Systems of Rock Hill, South Carolina announced that track car manufacturer Rodin Cars of Mount Lyford, New Zealand had chosen 3D Systems’s 3D printing technology to manufacture parts for its soon-to-be-released hypercar, which is named the Rodin FZero. Among many other parts for the car, Rodin Cars 3D printed a titanium 8-speed sequential gearbox with a hydraulically controlled differential, which 3D Systems proclaimed was the first of its kind in the world.
3D Systems also argued that the gearbox could only be produced via 3D printing, as a similar gearbox made via conventional means would not withstand what 3D Systems described as “the rigors presented by the track.” In addition, 3D Systems claimed that the gearbox took a year and a half to design, with Rodin Cars collaborating with engineering firm Ricardo of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, who had designed the gearbox for Rodin Cars’s previous track car in 2019, which was named the Rodin FZed.
Other examples of 3D printed car parts involve Porsche of Stuttgart, Germany and Ford of Dearborn, Michigan. In July 2020, Porsche announced that the pistons for its 911 GT2 RS’s engine were being 3D printed for the very first time. Porsche boasted that this resulted in them weighing 10% less than the traditionally made pistons and that they featured an integrated and closed cooling duct that could not have been made via conventional means. In January 2019, Ford announced that the 1977 Ford F-150 of professional rally driver Ken Block had had an engine intake manifold 3D printed for it. Taking 5 days to build, Ford proclaimed it as “the largest 3D metal-printed part for a working vehicle in automotive history.”
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 “St. Louis Motor Carriage Company car, 1904” is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1926.
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