Mike posted this hypnotic video of a 5-axis industrial CNC machine carving a prototype car form and applying/smoothing the epoxy shell. Even after understanding how it works, it’s still quite a fascinating process to take in. [via Hacked Gadgets]
10 thoughts on “CNC car form prototyping”
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what a great machine and what a poor design. shame!
with these designers, auto industriy will die.
Yep, horrible looking car. Confirms my theory that the world peaked in 1969 and it’s been downhill ever since :)
Seriously though I think these days safety ends up affecting the look of modern car a lot.
As nice as it is to see what CNC machines people can manage to build in their garage, nothing is more mesmerising to watch than a ruthlessly, efficient, monster of a machine like this :D.
So what was the first thing you though YOU would make if you had a machine like this.
Mine was an army of Daleks :)
Seems this could have been a LOT shorter and less wasteful if the following simple steps were taken:
1. Pre-cut the blocks in layers to approximate shapes
2. Reduce the epoxy / clay layer by half
3. Have humans put that layer on; the robot was taking its time
4. Why didn’t the original styrofoam do the trick for shaping? Shouldn’t it have gone down to final form before the finishing layer?
I’m sure the designers behind this thing had their reasons, but it looks like overkill on process for the same final result with some human help.