How many people can say they’ve taken a 3D printed bicycle on a 1000 km road trip? Well, as of January 20, two Sculpteo designers can! The French 3D printing company has just announced that designers Alexandre d’Orsetti and Piotr Widelka successfully completed a 1000 km ride from Las Vegas to San Francisco on their 3D printed Sculpteo Bikes, which they helped design. The journey marks a significant achievement for the company, proving the versatility and reliability of its metal 3D printing services.
The Sculpteo Bike, which was unveiled at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, was developed, prototyped, and built over a seven-week period by a team at Sculpteo. The impressive vehicle, which even drew the attention of French presidential candidate François Fillon at CES 2017, leverages Sculpteo’s metal 3D printing, laser cutting, and polymeric 3D printing capabilities.
French presidential candidate François Fillon trying out Sculpteo's bike
In fact, the company has stated that 70% of the bike’s parts were made using its online digital manufacturing services. Notable 3D printed parts include: pedals made from alumide using SLS 3D printing, connection parts made using CLIP and SLS technology, and brake parts 3D printed from titanium, flexible polyurethane, and elastomeric polyurethane. In the end, the 3D printed and visually sleek Sculpteo Bike cost roughly €4000 to manufacture, making it comparable in price to other bikes of its caliber made using traditional manufacturing techniques.
The cross-country bike journey, which was announced by Sculpteo CEO Clément Moreau, began at the CES venue in Las Vegas on January 8, and concluded on January 20 at Sculpteo’s office in San Francisco. In-between stops included Primm, Ludlow, Barstow, Bakersfield, Carrizo plain national monument, San Luis Obispo, San Simeon, Slates Hotspring, Monterey, and Santa Cruz. You can see details of their trip here.
The stunt does not mean that Sculpteo will begin manufacturing bikes, however. As the company states in a news post: “Sculpteo isn't a bike manufacturing company: we are an online digital manufacturing service, and an engineering company. We didn't create the Sculpteo Bike Project to show that we can make bikes, but rather to show one precise, functional application of our technologies and materials, and to inspire our clients to make the most out of them. Our job is to identify and solve complex problems for our clients, with our different technologies, materials, software tools and expertise.”
Sculpteo also showcased its new Agile Metal Technology software at CES 2017, which offers designers and manufacturers advanced evaluative and reparative tools for metal 3D printing projects.
