Olli, a 3D printed, self-driving minibus, ready to hit the roads in US

[CityFarmer]

3D printing, is one of my study topic. It is maturing into main stream manufacturing in few years time. It might be disruptive to precision-mfg sector.

Olli, a 3D printed, self-driving minibus, ready to hit the roads in US

NATIONAL HARBOR — A new maker of self-driving vehicles burst onto the scene Thursday (June 16) in partnership with IBM’s supercomputer platform Watson, and it’s ready to roll right now.

The vehicle — a 3D-printed minibus called “Olli” capable of carrying 12 people — was unveiled by Arizona-based start-up Local Motors outside the US capital city Washington.

Olli was designed as an on-demand transportation solution that passengers can summon with a mobile app, like Uber rides. And it can be “printed” to specification in “micro factories” in a matter of hours.

Olli will be demonstrated in National Harbor, Maryland, over the next few months with additional trials expected in Las Vegas and Miami. Local Motors is also in talks to test the vehicles in dozens of cities around the world including Berlin, Copenhagen and Canberra.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/tech/olli-3d-...t-roads-us

[Big Toe]

3D printing is over hyped at the moment. 3D printing has been around for quite a long time. It is slowly being refined to be more useful.
It is good for some application such as prototyping to test for fit and function before going into mass production.
There are 2 drawbacks.

1. Limited raw material can be used on the 3D printer. Usually lower grades of plastics. The texturing details also isnt ideal
2. It takes a very very long time to print something, even much longer if it is a big part. It takes usually a few seconds for say, 32 or 64 parts to be produced in the conventional way.

It is still a very very long way. But some one off/low quantity applications maybe suitable for 3D printing.

According to reports, Olli was developed in-house and uses a mix of 3D-printed, aluminum, and steel parts throughout.
It does not differ much from how other EVs are made, the 3-D printing tag line is added to garner more publicity.
In any case, I think the concept of a smart electric bus is more of a breakthrough. Using an app to flag a driverless bus to go somewhere you need to go
is indeed quite interesting.

[CityFarmer]

I am not so sure, 3D printing is over-hyped at the moment. I noticed that the technology has been used more in production lines, rather than only in R&D labs. One recent article i read is from Forbes, link below

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rakeshsharma...34e60e21e1

The Straits Times today, has an article on 3D printing technology. Based on the article, a French company survey showed one in four companies have used 3D printing in production. The survey might be biased with its limited respondents. I reckon, probably 3D printing will become main-stream by 2020, with more than 20% market share in manufacturing sectors.

How soon, will we see meaningful impact on mfg sectors? It shouldn't be within the next 5 years time, IMO.

(not vested in any precision-mfg companies now)

[Big Toe]

Here to share what I know.

1. 3D printing is not new. It has been around for a long time, it's impact is extremely limited in the whole scheme of things.

2. It is finding more applications but still very very far from replacing the traditional manufacturing.

3. 3D printing will NOT be mainstream anytime soon, that I am quite sure of, unless there are huge advances in this technology, which tends to be slow and incremental. There are a lot of issues to be addressed. But we cannot rule out that advances will make this technology more feasible in the next 10-20 years.

4. Manufacturing cannot be taken as a single activity nowadays. It is a highly specialized sector and is extremely complex. To have one segment of technology(3D printing) to replace all the advances made in the handling/forming/processing of raw material is simply not possible within a short span of time.

5. It may however dominate certain niche segments where it is proves to be most cost efficient. (making custom human parts or parts that fit onto the human body part that needs to be highly customized or not possible by other manufacturing methods.)

6. For many people, to print anything and everything in 3D from a printer seems like something that would truly be disruptive. BUt that's not the case, Here are just some questions. Where is the 3D data for printing going to come from? How fast can it print? What materials can it handle? What are the sizes it can handle? What restriction on the part design does it have? how much do these printers cost? What are the running cost of these printers? What are the finishing(texture) options of the printed part? Can the printers be integrated into the automated manufacturing process easily? Etc etc etc

[specuvestor]

IMHO 3D printing is as useful and sexy as 3D TV in the next decade

http://www.valuebuddies.com/thread-3775-...l#pid90471

[brattzz]

this AU-Bus product is just riding on the hype and throwing every trending key buzz words into it that you can think of to attract fundings...

should add "+apps,+hybrid,+eco,+Gaia,+crowdfunding,+drone,+brexit...etc..." sorry, i am skeptical indeed!

[CityFarmer]

3D printing are getting mature in jet engines and cars production...

GE spends US$1.4b on 3-D printer-makers for jet engines
06 Sep 2016 16:24
[STOCKHOLM] General Electric Co announced US$1.4 billion in European acquisitions to add 3D printing technology to manufacture parts for jet engines and cars.

The US company agreed to buy Sweden's Arcam AB for 5.86 billion kronor (S$ 923.51 million), alongside a separate transaction to acquire SLM Solutions Group AG of Germany, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

GE's aviation division is looking to print more than 100,000 jet-engine parts by 2020. The US company is buying into Arcam's claim that its technology using electron beams to melt metal powder into firm objects is superior to competing laser-based processes.

GE already became Arcam's top customer last year, placing the largest order to date to help produce turbine blades for jet engines.
...
BLOOMBERG

Source: Business Times Breaking News

[CityFarmer]

I suggest to merge all other 3D-printing related threads, into this thread, to facilitate the discussion on the topic.

What do you all think?

[brattzz]

"GE's aviation division is looking to print more than 100,000 jet-engine parts by 2020. The US company is buying into Arcam's claim that its technology using electron beams to melt metal powder into firm objects is superior to competing laser-based processes."

THIS! is the disruptive technology!

[CityFarmer]

As part of the research for 3D printing progress, I found the following news updates. The 3D technology, has advanced to a more mature level in car manufacturing. It is still yet reach mass production level, but reaching production quality for prototype and spare parts.

The interesting part is the synergy achieved by courier service provider and 3D printing. A strategically located warehouses with 3D printing capability, spare parts and/or full products can be delivered with very low logistic cost, in lesser time...

Peugeot Teams Up With 3D Printing Startup for Parts and Possibly Full Cars
http://fortune.com/2016/09/15/peugeot-di...-printing/

Sensing threat, UPS plans to expand its 3D printing operations
Source: REUTERS, Business Times Breaking News