5 Cool Things You Probably Didn’t Know You Could 3D Print

Cars & Motorbikes

 

This may look like a Mazda put through a photoshop chop shop, but this is actually a 1/6th scale model of the prototype three-wheeler URBEE2, proclaimed to be the “greenest car on earth”. The sleek exterior and interior is 3D printed in its entirety. To prove the car’s efficiency, they are intending to set a world record by sending 2 guys, their dog and only 10 gallons of bio-fuel on a road trip in the URBEE2 from New York to San Francisco, at a whopping 348 miles to the gallon.

 

 

 

 

This racecar made by Chinese students from some 3D printed parts can reach up to 100mph and has a 0-60 of a lightening 4.5 seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not fast enough for you? Try this Energica Ego; a beautiful electric-powered superbike with a top speed pushing 240kmh that is made out of 3D printed parts.

 

Prosthetics (for animals…?)

Meet Turbo-Roo. This adorable little dude is a Chihuahua puppy from Indianapolis, USA. Born without front legs, and abandoned by an owner who couldn’t care for him – foster parent Ashley Looper set out a fund-raising campaign to help pay for new wheels. MarkDewrick from the San Diego studio 3dyn, hearing of Ashley and Turbo’s plight, designed and printed a set of sweet wheels to help Turbo zip around unaided.

In equally cute animal news, a penguin in Warsaw zoo had its life saved by a 3D printed prosthetic beak. After losing it in a fight and facing starvation, Polish scientists scanned the penguin’s lost beak from every angle and, using an Omni3D, printed an accurate replica out of eco-plastic.  

 

 

On one final note, check out how happy this lucky duck is with his new prosthetic foot.

 

Guitars

Guitars have traditionally been made from solid woods, but these new super-light printed guitars could change the face of rock n’ roll. Created from “suspended polycarbonate tendons”, the bodies of these guitars are entirely 3D printed and then fitted with custom hardware. These Van Halen-oid guitars were made by Derek Manson from One.61.

If you prefer something less raucous check out this sublime acoustic guitar, which is printed from “$3000 worth of plastic”, with a headstock of printed sterling silver and the soundhole cover from stainless steel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Houses

 

Italian Enrico Dini has dedicated his life to 3D printing, to which end he built the huge 6m x 6m D-shape. At the moment he is just making chunks of artificial coral reef, which are designed to have organic shapes as to promote the habitation of sea life while being sturdy enough to act as breakwaters. The printer uses layers of sand stuck together with a magnesium-based binder which turns it into solid stone. Layered up, the printer can create nearly any shape that fits within its frame, including houses at half the price and over 4 times the speed.

 

But of course he has been trumped by the kings of mass production, the Chinese. China now own the world’s largest 3D printer, which uses “waste material” to create houses that cost less than £3000 to make each. They claim it can make 10 detached houses in an astonishingly quick 24 hours.

 

 

Generators

This little cotton-spool doohickey looks innocuous, but in reality is a hot new development in green energy.

 

Using a special paste with thermoelectric properties they have created a device that uses waste heat from, for example, inside the chimneys of power plants, that converts the heat energy into electricity. Working at a temperature difference as low as one degree, electrons are allowed to migrate from the hot outside to the cooler inside, creating an electric current. Although only 8% efficient, if applied on a large scale this TEG (thermoelectric generator) could save millions of pounds and convert huge amounts of waste back into energy. The science behind this technology has existed for over 200 years, but its only now, with radical advances in 3D printing, that this can be implemented on an efficient and cost-effective scale.

 

 

 

If you want to find out more about 3D printing, or just want to get involved in one of world’s most creative communities, check out MakerClub.org and sign up to find out about our IndieGoGo campaign launching later this October.