3D printing is taking the world by storm. Every day we read about someone or the other creating new ‘masterpieces’ using 3D printers. These days you can print everything from shoes to drones to ultra-light bicycles, and now even whole cars!
Two teams of eight engineering students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have built a 3D-printed solar electric car prototype, the NTU Venture 8 (NV8). It took them over one year to design, print, test, redesign, and eventually assemble it. They plan to race it in Shell’s Eco Marathon Asia event later this month.
Image courtesy www.nanyangchronicle.ntu.edu.sg
Features of the Car:
- Singapore’s first 3D-printed concept car.
- Its cockpit is fabricated from 150 lightweight plastic parts
- The car has a carbon fiber single-shell chassis.
- With dimensions of 3.2 x 1.3 x 1.3 m (10.5 x 4.3 x 4.3 ft), the NV 8 weighs 120 kg (265 lb).
- There is an array of honeycomb shapes on the car’s inside surface, which helps in making it both rigid and strong.
- The car has vertical opening doors
- The car can achieve a top speed of about 37 mph (60 km/h).
While the NV8 will run in the “urban concept” category, NTU students have also built a carbon fiber three-wheeler NTU Venture (NV) 9. This race car has unique tilting ability that will allow it to take sharp corners with minimal speed loss.
