This week, we take you behind the scenes of the Formula SAE student competition, which involves building a small-scale F1 vehicle for motor racing. A team of students used 3D metal printing to lighten their electric car and achieve better performance. Next, the ADDMAN Group and Continuous Composites have announced an exciting collaboration in the aerospace sector. We’ll also be taking a tour of the construction sector, where several partners are looking to design a 7.8-ton bridge using 3D concrete printing. Finally, we’ll wake up your taste buds with an interesting announcement for the food 3D printing market, with a particular focus on the sea and fish before looking at a new material to reduce plastic pollution. Have a great weekend and happy reading!
3D Printing Helps Students in Motor Racing
Have you heard of the Formula SAE university competition held every year in Montreal? It’s a car race in which over 600 students take part, from creating the vehicle to driving it on the track. This year, one of these teams used metal additive manufacturing to produce certain components for their car. The team, from Montreal’s École de technologie supérieure (ETS), designed an electric vehicle. They called on Renishaw to lighten certain key parts of the car, such as the pillars: the part between the front and rear doors of a car that acts as a pillar for the vehicle. The students needed four of these, traditionally CNC machined from aluminum. By turning to additive manufacturing, they were able to imagine an organic structure to lighten the weight considerably. Working with Renishaw, they printed parts using AlSi10Mg powder: the front pillars are 30% lighter, while those at the rear are 28% lighter. Important figures in sports like motor racing.
ADDMAN and Continuous Composites Are Shooting for the Stars
Additive manufacturing continues to higher and higher. In the latest aerospace and defense news from the sector, ADDMAN Group and Continuous Composites have announced a strategic partnership to scale Continuous Fiber 3D Printing (CF3D ®) for aerospace and defense. As part of this, ADDMAN will be producing test parts and prototypes to propel the technology into applications like Hypersonics and UAVs. ADDMAN has already installed a CF3D machine at its Fort Myers headquarters, making it the only service bureau in the US to offer both carbon-carbon composite and refractory alloy printing. Notably, it seems that the technology pairs well with materials from the ADDMAN Group such as Castheon 3D-printed Niobium alloys which are particularly useful for hypersonic applications. You can find out more in 3Dnatives’ upcoming webinar with the two companies, taking place on Tuesday, December 3rd at 10 AM EST/4 PM CET. Register for free HERE.
Photo Credits: Continuous Composites
A Concrete 3D Printing Collaboration
Swiss company Sika has announced that it has signed an agreement with several partners to advance the Diamanti project. This is a 9-meter long by 2-meter wide polyhedral structure created using 3D concrete printing. Collaborators from Carsey 3D, Cerib and AEvia have joined the venture, seeking to minimize the amount of material required to build the structure. Sika is supplying the material – a fiber-reinforced concrete designed to be extruded – as well as all its expertise in additive manufacturing and modeling. Ultimately, the aim is to use 3D technologies to design all types of structure and to advance construction methods. The first results will be on display from May 10 to November 23, 2025, at the “Time – Space – Existence” exhibition at the European Cultural Centre in Italy.
Part of the 3D-printed bridge (photo credits: Polyhedral Structural Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania)
A Partnership to Advance the Food 3D Printing Sector
If you follow the latest news in additive manufacturing, you’ve probably already heard of Steakholder Foods, an Israeli company that uses 3D printing to design plant-based alternatives to meat, fish and seafood. It has just signed an R&D partnership with UMAMI Bioworks to take its work even further. The aim is to scale up the production of 3D-printed fish fillets, with a view to international commercialization and responding to increasingly worrying environmental issues. We’ll keep you posted, but who knows, you might find salmon fillets in your supermarkets in a few months’ time!
Photo Credits: Shlomi Arbiv/Steakholder/SWNS
A Sustainable Alternative Material to Reduce Plastic Pollution
Plastic pollution is one of today’s greatest environmental challenges, with millions of tonnes of plastic accumulating in landfills and oceans every year. In this context, the search for sustainable alternatives is becoming crucial. In this respect, 3D printing is an essential tool for the manufacture of new, more environmentally-friendly materials. The use of beeswax in architecture, as part of The Wax Project initiative, is a remarkable example. 3D printing was used to create prototypes with lattice structures based on beeswax, a natural, biodegradable material that replaces plastic in construction applications. These translucent panels, produced from silicone molds, not only offer aesthetic and functional properties, but also allow for easy reuse, significantly reducing the carbon footprint.
Photo Credits: Manufactura Mexico
What do you think of the use of 3D printing in motor racing? What about the new collaboration between Continuous Composites and the ADDMAN Group for aerospace additive manufacturing? Let us know in a comment below or on our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter pages! Don’t forget to sign up for our free weekly Newsletter here, the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox! You can also find all our videos on our YouTube channel.