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Team 3D Prints Electric Car at IMTSTeam 3D Prints Electric Car at IMTS

Charles Murray

September 12, 2014

7 Min Read
Team 3D Prints Electric Car at IMTS

Using a 3D printer, CNC router, and existing powertrain components, a team of engineers is building an electric car from scratch on the floor of the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago this week.

Scheduled to be completed today after a four-day print-and-assembly process, the car known as Strati will use a combination chassis and body made on a large scale printer. It is said to be the first car to make such extensive use of 3D printing technology.

"We're trying to show how the process of additive manufacturing can be applied to vehicle design," Kate Hartley of Local Motors told Design News. "With this kind of technology, one day you'll be able to design your own car, print it, and take it home."

Click on the Strati below to start the slideshow.

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About the Author(s)

Charles Murray

Charles Murray is a former Design News editor and author of the book, Long Hard Road: The Lithium-Ion Battery and the Electric Car, published by Purdue University Press. He previously served as a DN editor from 1987 to 2000, then returned to the magazine as a senior editor in 2005. A former editor with Semiconductor International and later with EE Times, he has followed the auto industry’s adoption of electric vehicle technology since 1988 and has written extensively about embedded processing and medical electronics. He was a winner of the Jesse H. Neal Award for his story, “The Making of a Medical Miracle,” about implantable defibrillators. He is also the author of the book, The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997. Murray’s electronics coverage has frequently appeared in the Chicago Tribune and in Popular Science. He holds a BS in engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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