Since unveiling the Strati, their crowdsource-designed 3D printed car, Local Motors has been visiting everybody from MakerFaires to the Today Show and has been open about putting the car, which can be printed in 44 hours, into production later this year.
While most would probably expect the Phoenix, Arizona-based company to unveil something on an auto show floor rather than build something, they chose the latter.
Using equipment that they hauled in to their marked-off space at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which kicked off today, the team went right to work printing their car from scratch alongside the newly-unveiled 2016 Ford GT and dozens of other new auto releases.
The micro-factory, which was protected by glass to prevent curious onlookers from getting too close, is roughly the size of a small room. In contrast, every other car on the floor required tens of thousands of square feet to produce. While the 3D printing component establishes the main car body, it requires routing and polishing to finish.
Later this year, Local Motors will be opening a fabrication facility in Washington, DC and will begin selling their first round of Strati.
The public saw its first glimpse of the Strati in the summer of 2014 at the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014 in Chicago. Just a week later, SolidSmack was able to get up close in NYC and took some more detailed pictures of the car:
The final design, which features 212 layers of carbon fiber-reinforced ABS plastic, employs the use of a Thermwood CNC Router to remove printed material for finer details, and is then completed by adding the final non-printed components including the seats, drivetrain, electrical equipment and tires.
Find out more on the Strati over at Local Motors.
