3D Printing News Unpeeled: Tadej Pogacar’s Colnago, Room Temperature Metal 3D Printing

Two time Tadej Pogacar Colnago V4Rs for the Tour de France has some 3D printing components on it. In some videos we learn that there are polymer components made including a 3D printed headset cover, a number holder and a chainring bolt covers. This development is sure to be followed since the bike is a storied one, Tadej Pogačar is a closely watched potential winner as well. What is new here is that these components are improvised, so a duck tape like solution to customize, improve or change the bike using lightweight components. This will be tried by others henceforth.

Ceramics firm 3DCeram has become a supplier to French ThrustMe. ThrustMe is a 2017 startup that has been making in orbit propulsion systems for satellites. They want to make one system a day off off the rack systems that are powered by iodine plasma engines. They chose ceramics 3D Printing because it can iterate quickly, can help miniaturize systems, can print complex shapes and is resistant to the harsh environment including the forces from the plasma iodine engine.

 NC State University has demonstrated 3D printing metal using a gel at room temperature in one step. They mixed indium-gallium alloy with water to make a gel which is extruded and then dried. This could be a very low cost way to make 97.5% metal objects with standard extrusion systems. The paper is in Matter and is called, “Metallic Gels for Conductive 3D and 4D Printing” by Ruizhe Xing and team.