Mexican Media Brands
Airbus, Local Motors Partner on Printed Cars, Drones
European aerospace Airbus SE and Phoenix-based Local Motors Inc. are launching a joint venture to use 3D printing techniques to make passenger drones and self-driving vehicles.
Share
European aerospace Airbus SE and Phoenix-based Local Motors Inc. are launching a joint venture to use 3D printing techniques to make passenger drones and self-driving vehicles.
Their 50:50 venture, called Neorizon, plans to set up a “microfactory” in Munich, the Financial Times reports. The partners have worked together less formally since 2016.
LMI has been striving since 2007 to develop a high-speed 3D printing process for vehicles. The company has been touting its technology with Olli, a self-driving electric shuttle designed for use on campuses and urban areas. The vehicle can carry 12 occupants at speeds of 25 mph (40 kph) or less.
Neorizon envisions customers using small local plants to “print” vehicles on demand, according to FT. LMI Founder Jay Rogers says his company’s technology is proven and ready for commercialization.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Evolve Advances Additive—Manufacturing
If you’re interested in additive manufacturing—even interested while fully thinking that you really need some reasonable production volumes, say of 15,000 to 20,000 parts, and know that what’s out there right now pretty much is limited to a fraction of that number—then here’s an acronym to know: STEP, and a company to stay aware of: Evolve Additive Solutions.
-
Building Bikes
According to the folks at Sculpteo, a 3d printing and engineering services company based outside of Paris, they built what they describe as “the first ever fully functional bike created using digital manufacturing.” To prove that this is a real bike, not a booth exhibit, the two designers of the bike, Alexandre d’Orsetti and Piotr Widelka, rode it from Las Vegas, where it had been on display at CES, to San Francisco, where Sculpteo has a facility.
-
Printing Prototypes
Skorpion Engineering, an Italian firm with operations in both Milan and Turin, is deploying 3D printers from Stratasys to produce complex prototypes 50 percent faster than it was able to do when it was using clay modeling to produce components.
