Thomas Palm Introduces New 3D Printed Tire Designs for Open RC F1

When it comes to RC vehicles, Thomas Palm of Palmiga Innovation has you covered for all types of weather. He and his friend Daniel Noreé, founder of the OpenRC Project, have been hard at work on Noreé’s recently released OpenRC Formula 1 car. Before the design files for the F1 were released to the public, Palm had already designed and released files for several varieties of tires to fit the car. Now the F1 is out there, just in time for winter, which calls for, of course, snow tires. Palm was at the ready, and has introduced a number of new tires that should help the F1 navigate the most arctic of landscapes – as well as the more moderate ones.

“Not only did I design some snow chains inspired tires that Daniel Noreé requested,” Palm tells 3DPrint.com, “but I also did some different friction tires that’s pretty cool (I use the single layer thickness (0.2mm) making bulging loops to create small nubs/bumps on the surface), added solid tire versions, made 4 new rain tires for the original rims and all my OpenR/C F1 tires/rims are now released under a more liberal license (Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, CC BY-SA 3.0).”

Palm also designed an “early ice inspired Easter Egg” that he included with the files for the snow chain tires. The Easter Egg can also be purchased separately, printed in flexible TPU-65 SLS-powder, from Sculpteo. He includes a note of caution regarding the use of the design, however:

“I do not promote or support any special use or ideas on how to use it…everyone’s ideas and uses are on their own responsibility. I emphasize that anybody using my designs are doing so on their own risk and that I am in no way responsible for any likely or unlikely damage or injuries.”

Palm has released several additional tire designs for the F1, as well. These include two variations of low profile friction tires, as well as a solid tire addition to his low profile tire and rim set. Four new versions of his rain tires have also been added.

Since 3D printing has gone mainstream, a number of interesting niches have sprung up within the global community of makers and designers, and the OpenRC Project is one of them. The group currently has 5,193 members, all 3D printing enthusiasts who are happy to share their designs, hacks and advice with fellow RC designers. Below, you can watch Noreé test drive the F1 with Palm’s new winter tires. He hasn’t yet tested the Easter Egg tire; as he states on the OpenRC site, he’s “waiting for the cold weather to return so I can take this bad boy out for a spin on the ice!”