RAPID

3D Print Your Way Forward with an Electric Skateboard from Faraday Motion

Eplus 3D

Share this Article

faradaSkateboarding most likely began in the 1940s with the attachment of wheels to the bottoms of wooden crates. It started to catch on with surfers during the 1960s who were looking for something to do when the waves were too flat for fun. The introduction in the 1970s of cadillac wheels to replace the previous clay ones improved performance and the popularity of skateboarding has been skyrocketing ever since. In fact, in a recent survey, it was found that more kids in the United States under the age of 18 were riding skateboards than playing baseball.

NYC-Skateboard-02As large numbers of skateboarders ‘grow up’ we find a new group emerging that has a significant skateboarding population: those over 18. Sune Pedersen, head of Faraday Motion’s business strategy and software team, is one of those people. While suffering the pains of an old knee injury, Pedersen began to wonder if he couldn’t create some new form of board-based transportation that would work for him. It wasn’t too much of a leap to think of making a motorized skateboard as some models already existed, the key was to improve it.

After years of experimentation and prototyping, Faraday Motion is ready to release its 3D printed electric skateboard…for pre-order. And if you’ve got access to a 3D printer and $560, you can sign up to get the spine deck, engine parts, electronic essentials and 3D files necessary to begin assembly of your own. For a bit more, they’ll send you all the parts and you put it together. And, since money and time are often interchangeable, if you have more of the former than the latter, you can also order one that only requires you to get it out of the box.

Faraday-Motion-3D-Printed-Electric-Skateboard1This creation is controlled by a smartphone app and can reach speeds of 18 miles per hour and hold a charge for about 6 miles before it needs to be topped up. That’s nowhere near the world record speed of 80.74 miles set by Mischo Erban in 2012, and we should all thank goodness for that. While 18 mph is enough to feel the wind in your hair, without feeling the repetitive motion strain of the pain in your knee, work is currently underway on a model called the HyperBoard that can reach top speeds of nearly 25 mph, but you’ll still have to wait a bit for that.

Faraday-Motion-3D-Printed-Electric-SkateboardIf you want to print the board yourself, you’ll need to plan about 100 plus hours worth of printing time on a print bed that is a minimum of 200 x 200 mm, and then, of course, more time after you realistically assess your ability to assemble such things. Waiting for the HyperBoard means you’ll need to clear about 500 or more hours from your calendar and assume at least a couple of weeks for assembly, so it’s good that you can start planning now. So, start saving up your vacation days and you just might have enough time to create the vehicle that takes you there!

Discuss this story in the Faraday Motion forum thread on 3DPB.com.

 

Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printing News Unpeeled: Silicone Support and Concrete in New Zealand and Saudi

“World’s Largest On-site 3D Printed Building” Completed in Saudi Arabia



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Construction 3D Printing Company Mighty Buildings Opens Factory in Mexico to Scale Climate-Resilient Homes

Mighty Buildings, the Oakland-based additive construction (AC) company, announced that it has opened a new factory in Monterrey, Mexico, to scale up production of its prefabricated, climate-resilient homes. Last October,...

ICON Tackles Affordable Housing at SXSW 2023 with 3D Printing Competition

Construction firm, 3D printer manufacturer, or both? No matter its formal category, the Austin-based construction technology company ICON is, above all, at the forefront of the digital possibilities of additive...

Featured

GE to Invest Nearly $500M in US Manufacturing, Including 3D Printing

In the latest signal that the pillars of US industrial output are serious about building on last year’s growing momentum to reshore the nation’s manufacturing, GE announced that it plans...

COBOD Machines 3D Printing a House a Week in Kenya

COBOD, the Danish additive construction (AC) firm, has announced that the company’s printers are being used in Kenya to create the world’s largest community of printed affordable housing — topping...