Two dozen people gathered Friday in McCormick Place to witness the first turn of the motor on a two-seater electric car whose body was printed at the convention center in only 44 hours.
But before turning the ignition key, John “Jay” Rogers, chief executive and founder of Local Motors, a custom vehicle-maker involved in the project, had a few photos taken with the crew that assembled the car.
The car’s motor was so quiet, and noise in the convention center was so loud, that few people knew the car was running.
So Rogers turned on the car’s lights and honked its horn, prompting cheers.
“Wooo,” yelled Carolina Perez, who said she waited a half-hour to snap a photo of the moment.
“I wish I could hear the noise of the engine,” Perez said, adding that the company should have broadcast the running motor over large speakers.
Still, Perez said she was excited to witness the moment, which she called “revolutionary.”
A huge machine tucked into a corner at the convention center, hosting the International Manufacturing Technology Show, began printing the car’s body parts last Sunday, and they were assembled over the week. The car will be driven off the convention floor Saturday.
The project’s aim was to demonstrate that 3-D printing, which essentially prints objects in layers of plastic, has factory floor applications. Project backers also wanted to hear from attendees on how they might use the technology and improve on it.
Rick Neff, a marketing manager at Cincinnati Inc., said he heard from artists, other automakers and companies in the aerospace industry. Most people said the technology was cool, but they need to think about how they would justify spending $1 million on the machine, Neff said.
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Called the Strati, the car weighs about 1,500 pounds and will have a top speed of 50 miles per hour, Local Motors said Friday. The car was assembled from 40 parts, including mechanical components, such as a motor, wiring and suspension, that were supplied by other companies.
The project’s backers include Cincinnati Inc., an Ohio machine-maker; Local Motors, based in Phoenix; and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak Ridge said it spent about $1.5 million in the project. Cincinnati Inc. and Local Motors have spent more than $1 million each.
The team has been working more than 15-hour days to put together the car. They’ve had challenges. Earlier in the week, they realized the shafts that connect the wheels to the motor were too long, so they scrambled to find a local company that could cut them. And on Thursday, they realized that they had printed the wrong size of fenders, so they printed new ones.
That’s the beauty of the 3-D technology, said Alex Fiechter, head of innovation at Local Motors.
“Change is as easy as making a change in the computer and then printing it,” Fiechter said.
Lonnie Love, a research engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, earlier this week said he envisions the technology will be initially adapted by tool- and die-makers and ultimately by companies that make cars, planes and other products.
The machine was fed tiny pellets of plastic mixed with carbon fiber. The pellets melt and come out like soft-serve ice cream, forming a string that looks like thick cable wire. The layers are stacked together and pressed hard enough to glue them, but not to break or deform them.
Rogers, chief executive of Local Motors, said the car, a prototype, was bought by the owners of the show. Future models will be available in the first quarter of 2015 with a price from $18,000 to $30,000, depending on customer specifications, he said.
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