Urbee 2 – Car With 3d Printed Body
What did you picture cars would look like when you were a kid? Streamlined, sleek, with futurist aerodynamic lines. The Urbee is that car. A two passenger hybrid car, designed for the future, and 3d printed.
The entire exterior body of the Urbee is 3d printed on Stratasys 3d printers using their on demand print services. By 3d printing the parts, they could create more complex pieces than would be feasible with standard machining. They integrated small details into body panels that normally would be done with multiple materials. Even the prototype glass panels were 3d printed to test the design before getting the custom glasswork. By 3d printing everything, the Urbee team made the design process more efficient, and prototyping much quicker.
However, even on industrial 3d printers, the 3d printed car exterior took many hours of machine time. The bumper alone took 300 hours on a 3d printer to print completely. Noah Zehringer, a Stratasys senior applications engineer, estimated the entire car would take 2,500 hours of 3d printing. The Urbee will likely use more traditional methods once they have enough orders to go into full manufacturing, but the prototype will be a street legal vehicle with a 3d printed body.