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Materialise Slot Car Races
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Materialise Slot Car Races
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Materialise Slot Car Races
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Materialise Slot Car Races
Materialise has reported on the success of its slot car racing competition, which was set up in the heart of the show floor at RAPID, encouraging visitors to get involved and for slot car enthusiasts to submit their own 3D-printed designs.
This year's RAPID was held in Detroit, Michigan, so Materialise's playful show feature was especially apt, given the state's reputation as the automotive manufacturing heartland of the US.
Materialise launched the slot car challenge in 2013, giving slot car fans a whole year to design and 3D print a slot car. The results included a miniature Ford 1955 pickup truck, hot rods, an ice cream truck with working jingle bells and, bizarrely, a rowing boat. Many contestants used Materialise's 3-matic software to design their car or enhance its look by applying textures and logos, with each design then being optimised and prepared for 3D printing using Magics software.
On June 10th, 25 3D-printed slot cars raced during Materialise's networking event on the show floor. The event featured numerous heats until one racer, Takata's Stewart Murray, was crowned Slot Car Champion.
Wilfried Vancraen, Founder and CEO of Materialise, said: "Our goal of the slot car championship was to showcase how 3D printing can improve design and performance while resulting in a one-of-a-kind car that’s aesthetically pleasing. It was fun to see how creative the submissions were and even more exciting when you consider how these same individuals are using their creativity and 3D printing to solve so many problems in the real world."
The following prizes were also handed out:
- Fastest Car: GE Global Research
- Most Innovative Use of 3D Printing: SolidThinking
- Most Original: Hyphen
- Crowd Favorite: Legacy Effects
One of the racers in Materialise's event, Andrew Rogers of Proto Labs, said: "Making the body for the slot car competition was a great, collaborative project for us at Proto Labs. We got to make a unique design with our 1955 Ford F100 using our skills and abilities with additive manufacturing technologies and using Materialise's Magics RP software to perform all of our design modifications."
Materialise joined forces with two local organisations to help them design and 3D print a slot car, while a student from Focus Hope got the chance to work with engineers at Materialise and learned how to design for 3D printing.
During RAPID, Materialise also showcased its full range of 3D printing software, including new innovations including Sintermodule and e-Stage, which allow customers to focus on automation, integration and streamlining the entire process not to mention the traceability and quality control that Streamics software provides.
Moreover, Materialise's 3-matic Texturing and Lightweight Structures are expanding design possibilities while maintaining a reasonable file size.
Materialise also offered demonstrations of their flagship Magics software and how it can save you time and money throughout the entire 3D-printing process. For those just starting out, they’ve also launched MiniMagicsPRO, a software that allows you to view STL files and generate quotes.
