3D printer and materials manufacturer, Zortrax made a very challenging but entertaining project in order to show its quality. Manufacturing a motorcycle only with 3D printing, the company draw interest of users and firms.
Carrying out this work to prove 3D’s advantages in automotive and the quality of its materials, Zortrax succedded to come to the fore of 3D world. Making a successful test of its solutions, the company stated that this was a very efficient experience for them.
This project including scanning, printing and finishing processes, took almost a month. In the printing process last year’s 3D Hubs ‘Plug N Play’ award winner M300 and M200 printers are used. As materials warp-resistant Z-HIPS, Z-ULTRAT ve Z-GLASS are preferred.
The company took a middleweight motorcycle, stripped it off and started to design a new body for it. Parts like the fairing, screen, lights, seat, tank casing, and mirror cases were all 3D printed, making for a very ambitious project that took around a month to complete. Once all the plastic motorcycle parts had been 3D printed, the Zortrax team then had to deal with post-processing, which involved smoothing down, undercoating, grinding, and painting each part. Overall, the scanning, printing, and post-processing took around one month. The result is a full-sized, fully functional 3D printed motorcycle that is ready to fly like a bat out of a 3D printer. While the prototype is not fit for use on the streets, the success of the project shows how 3D printing can be used as a prototyping tool in the automotive industry.
“At every stage we faced different challenges,” Zortrax specialist Michal Mosiej explains. “The first was selecting a base model that our projected prototype would fit. Then, there was the complex 3D scanning process, which requires a tremendous amount of technical detail, to ensure we maintained the same dimensions as our scanned model. The most exciting part was the designing process and the assembly, keeping in mind that all our parts must fit perfectly.”