The pervasive use of 3D printing continues its climb in high profile industries and manufacturing applications.
Caterham of British sports car fame (yes we all want the Seven 620R to knock about in) invested in two 3D printers last year and are now saving £40,000 each month on some 800 to 900 parts used by their Formula 1 team. Models are made and printed for testing with 60% scaling. If successfully passing their tests for strength, durability, wind resistance etc, they are then scaled up and included on their racing cars.
Caterham are just one of the many high tech manufacturing industries that are investing in 3D printing for its flexibility and cost savings on producing low volume but highly expensive manufactured parts.
Without doubt the take up of 3D printing across these well known companies is beginning to roll quickly. Given the immense promise of distributed manufacturing it will be no surprise to see this trend continue. In fact, small specialist companies that service some of the big names are already setting up operations to service motor sport applications.
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