I read some bonkers stuff online and when I first became aware of 3D printing about three and a half years ago it took a while for me to get an idea of what it does and get that into my head. Nowadays its obvious and you can buy a 3d printer relatively cheaply to make parts.
In fact, one of my friends has bought one to make parts for his robotics company and it is pretty impressive but still to be able to build a supercar from me seems a little far fetched but the supercar made in San francisco based start up Divergent Microfactories.
The “Blade” is a lightweight and very sleek looking and it can do 0-60 mph in 2.2 seconds (holy cow!!!) that is incredibly fast, which is exactly what you are after when you buy a supercar.
The DM Blade is has a chassis that is made entirely using a 3D printer, using this method of manufacture reduces the weight of the chassis by 90%. Using this method and the use of carbon fibre for most of the super cars body panels instead of aluminium or steel means that the car weighs in at about 600 Kg’s.
“How we make things is much more important than how we fuel them and whether they have a tailpipe or not,” Kevin Czinger, CEO of Divergent, said in an interview with Forbes.
Kevin Czinger has also put in a lot of thought into how the car is fuelled, with the Blade carrying a 700hp engine that can run on compressed natural gas it makes it one of the most environmentally friendly cars around.
Divergent Microfactories will make a few of the cars at first, but they eventually plan on selling the technology to smaller car manufacturers to make their own vehicles.
“We have got to rethink how we manufacture, because — when we go from 2 billion cars today to 6 billion cars in a couple of decades — if we don’t do that, we’re going to destroy the planet,” Czinger adds.
This really does open up the industry to what is potentially in the future… I wonder how it fairs in a crash test? I am sure we will find out soon enough…. Watch this space
