We caught up with Jay Rodgers, the Founder and CEO of Local Motors, after his MakerCon talk to learn more about their motor vehicle co-creation platform, micro-factories where they provide free access to digital fabrication equipment for collaborative car, motorcycle and trike building. Plus, we get to check out their stellar carbon fiber, 3D printed, fully-electric car, the Strati.
The Strati (which translates to “layers” in Italian) was designed by Michael Anoe. It has 100% electric Renualt Trizy electric powertrain and was build by Local Motors in partnership with the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cincinnati Incorporated. It was printed on a massive additive machine at a thick extrusion width using pellets comprised of carbon fiber and ABS that are fed into a large hopper. All parts of the car were printed at the same time, although not in the same piece and each layer took about 15 minutes.
As seen in the detail pictures in the slideshow, parts of the Strati hood and interior were subtractively machined on a 5-axis CNC to create detail. Local Motors staff speculated that the Strati could do around 30 miles per hour in its current form, but they have yet to put it to the test.
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