TU Delft team create 3D printed bicycles

A team of five TU Delft students are working on 3D-printing a bicycle. Advantages of a 3D printed bicycle is that the bike can be made exactly every individual's specifications and it is cheaper than a traditional bike. The bike frame is made out of stainless steel, newspaper AD reports. This means it is heavier than the current aluminium bikes. But that does not mean this will always be the case - 3D printers are capable of working with all kinds of organic forms and using different materials can result in a lighter bicycle. This bicycle is the successor of the previously 3D printed bridge, which will be placed in Amsterdam in 2017. It forms part of a collaboration between Technical Universities and the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan solutions, in which TU students work on printing practical objects from everyday life. "We are now printing full-time", Stef de Groot, one of the students working on the bike, said to the newspaper. "I expect the bike will be complete in two to three weeks." This is still just an experiment however. Commercial production is still far in the future, according to Jouke Verlinden, professor of Industrial design at the Technical University.