Above and beyond unveiling their new 3D-printed bike during this month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the French company Sculpteo decided to really show-off its bike’s capabilities by afterwards taking it on 500+ mile ride from Las Vegas to their U.S. office in San Francisco.
Sculpteo says its Darwin Bike is the first fully functional 3D manufactured bike, wherein 70% of its parts are made using 3D printing and laser cutting.
Alexandre d’Orsetti and Piotr Widely started working on the project at the beginning of November, with the goal of demonstrating the effectiveness 3D printing and laser cutting technology can have on bike design and development.
“This diversity of elements, with specific constraints (structure, comfort, settings, etc) allowed us to split the project into several sub-projects, and to choose, for each one of them, which technology and material would fit best.”
Furthermore, he added that digital manufacturing allowed them to produce finished parts, not just models or prototypes. “This means we can work with the materials and their specific characteristics, when conceiving our finished object.
“Having a real, finished object in your hands just two days after ordering it gives a great amount of flexibility and allows to go back and forth many times between different iterations until your object fits its final use.”
“The bike we built is meant to keep adapting and improving according to the challenges it will face and the applications that will be made of it, as well as the feedbacks we’ll get about it.”
According to the latest update, the two designers have since made their way through the Mojave National Reserve and on to Bakersfield, California, where they stopped in order to get some new Sculpteo parts and make a few ‘adjustments” to the bike before undertaking the rest of the journey.
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