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China Unveils Their First 3D Printed Car: Slower, Uglier, But Cheaper

Ever since Local Motors brought their 3D-printed Strati car at last year’s International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, one thing was clear as the bright sunlight: a new page in the automotive history was being written. A couple of other start-up companies later joined in and now the time has come for China to bring in their fair share of printing knowledge.
China's forst 3D printed car 7 photos
Photo: www.chinanews.com
China's first 3D printed carChina's first 3D printed carChina's first 3D printed carChina's first 3D printed carChina's first 3D printed carChina's first 3D printed car
The design might look somewhat peculiar for us, Western people, but other than that we have to admit it’s quite impressive. We are also quite fond of how cheap it is to produce considering we are still talking about a new technology. Let us take a closer look.

Designed by a company based in Sanya City, China, the 3D printed car was recently unveiled by its creators, a local company named Sanya Sihai. The first difference between the Chinese version and the American Strati car is that it’s not entirely 3D printed, as the interior was added later. Weighing an impressive 500 kg (1102 lbs) the Tryant Gold auto is an electric-powered four wheeler.

Unlike the Local Motors model that took around 44 hours to create, the manufacturing line of this unit seems to work a bit slower, since the 3D printing process took about 5 days. On the other hand, the Chinese managed to keep things quite light. “The density of the material is much lighter than that of the metal, only one-seventh or one-eighth,” chief designer Chen Mingqiao explained.

According to 3Dprint, the car used 500 kg of filament in the 3D printing process which, along with the electricity and labor, makes the car worth around 11,000 yuan ($1,770). The 3D printed body is estimated to have cost about 10 yuan per kg of material, meaning it took the manufacturer about 5,000 yuan ($805) to construct. The cost sure makes it interesting.

Moving further with the specs, we are looking at a two-seater that is 3,6-meter (11.9 ft) long and 1.63-meter (5.5 ft) wide. The vehicle is capable of top speeds of 40 km/h (25 mph) which is around 15 mph less than its fellow American model.

Other than the fact we still don’t see how a 3D printed car can be safe enough for people to actually drive one on a daily basis, we have to admit the way things are going make the future look quite interesting.

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