On Monday, Jan. 26, IMTS and the world’s first 3-D printed vehicle visited El Camino College.

IMTS, which stands for the International Manufacturing Technology Show, is the largest tech trade show. The point of the show is to showcase new pieces of technology and manufacturing for the better use of our resources. Vice President Greg Jones, of Smartforce Development, said, “After the 2012 show we were wondering what was next. And after a while we came to the conclusion ‘why not 3-D print a car?'”

After 2 years of research and development they finally had what it took to do what “had never been done before”. With the help of Local Motors, Oakridge National Labs, Cincinnati Incorporated and AMT, the Association for Manufacturing Technology, they were able to begin printing. They just needed a design. A contest was held; and worldwide designers sent in models and design ideas and after many hours of consideration, an Italian designer took home the bragging rights, his design name: the Strati.

The Strati, which means “layers” in Italian, is significant because of the process in which the car is 3-D printed. Layer by layer, each part of the car is printed. The car took 44 hours to completely print. And is made up of just 44 parts, compared to the 2,000 parts of a regular vehicle. It has a top speed of 40 miles per hour and runs on an electric engine which gets 125 miles on one charge.

Brandon Marshall, 31, Computer Engineering major, said, “It’s pretty nice, and it’s a great start. Being able to do something like this is important.” When asked about the zero-emission and features of the car, he added, “That’s not very special, it’s not important. What makes this a great advancement is the fact that it can be printed.

Look forward to the future of printed cars, Andrew Taggart, who works for AMT had one final thing to say about the project, “It shows what is possible for the future of manufacturing.”