At LulzBot, we take great pride in the fact that our open source 3D printing technology can be used for an almost endless variety of creative endeavors. Open Source Hardware and Free Software is all about giving people the freedom to create virtually anything. The innovators, teachers, artists, engineers and makers who fully embrace our technology never cease to amaze us with their creations.This includes one prominent LulzBot user, Chicago area-based artist Ioan Florea. His 3D liquid metal car, which has been making headlines since last year, was described by one writer as resembling something that “just arrived from the underworld or an alien planet.”
Here's what Florea did: He took an iconic American muscle car (a 1971 Ford Torino) and covered the exterior with an intricate, 3D printed “liquid metal” design. Then, he coated the design with a special liquid finish to give it its eye-catching, reflective varnish. The result: a car that looks like something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie. As Florea puts it, he took a car made on the assembly line in the Second Industrial Revolution and turned it into a piece of art using technology from the “Third Industrial Revolution.” “The idea and the concept behind this was to take a car like that and fuse it with the newest 3D printing technologies and materials, ... to announce and mark the moment of the beginning of the third industrial revolution,” he said in an interview at the 2014 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago.
According to 3Dprint.com, the car’s “liquid metal” exterior is comprised of 150 3D-printed, textured and originals objects. Florea used industrial sized printers, along with smaller desktop printers to create this impressive car. Florea also has other 3D liquid metal projects in the works, and is using a LulzBot 3D printer to bring them to life—we believe he’s definitely one innovator to watch.
