Thermoplastic Composites Facilitate DED of Electric Scooter

Even as electric scooters arrive on city streets throughout the world, the designs and constructions are extremely similar. Scotsman, a company based in Milpitas, California, is using DED to launch a customizable alternative.

The company says its line of scooters will be the first 100% carbon-fiber thermoplastic composite electric scooters in the world, and that these scooters are customizable for the customer’s height, weight and riding style. The scooter has a unibody construction, eliminating the weaknesses of joints and glued components.

According to Josh Morenstein, founder of Branch Creative, the company that designed the Scotsman, “3D printing with carbon-fiber composite enables us to pursue designs not otherwise possible in other materials and fabrication techniques.”

Deposited Into Production

To produce the Scotsman, the company used Arevo’s Aqua DED (directed energy deposition) system, which is largely predicated on a deposition head mounted on a six-axis robot. The head uses a laser to melt the thermoplastic material, which is a mix of nylon and carbon fiber with a 50% nominal fiber volume, then compacts the material with a roller to eliminate voids in the structure. The printer’s build volume measures 1,000 × 1,000 × 830 mm.

Aqua uses Arevo’s Xplorator software, which enables topology optimization of the design, toolpath generation, control and other functions. Arevo is operating a printer farm in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to produce the Scotsman scooters.