TOKYO -- Metal molds, welding robots and machine presses will no longer be needed to manufacture automobiles, if all goes according to the plans of one U.S. company.

The 3-D printed Strati

A new age in automaking is about to arrive as Local Motors develops a plant with the aim of starting commercial production in 2015.

The centerpiece of the facility -- a 3-D printer.

The machine will make carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic bodies and fenders for compact electric vehicles. The time taken to produce parts is long compared to those of current vehicles made by welding together press-formed sheets of steel. However, because metal molds are not used, the freedom to design is greater. It will also be possible to create a plant that can produce differently designed bodies to suit customer preferences.

A new car is born

Local Motors has created the Strati -- a printed car developed with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. As of February, the company had produced four of the vehicles, of which two are electric, and capable of running.

The research and development site is Oak Ridge's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is a "factory" filled with large 3-D printers, five-spindle machining centers for drawing the surface of models, and an assembly space. There are no conveyor belts or trolleys, as moving pieces of the car from the printers and onto the five-spindle machining centers can be done with a forklift, according to James Earle, a Local Motors advanced manufacturing engineer stationed at Oak Ridge.

The automaker will set up a small-scale plant, or "microfactory," near the current location sometime in 2015. It will continue sharing research results with Oak Ridge in order to commercialize the cars.

Normally, an electric vehicle has around 20,000 parts, but the Strati has fewer than 50. What Local Motors creates with the printing technology is integrated parts. Here, the body and chassis, which consist of several hundred parts in conventional vehicles, are formed as one.

The body and chassis of a regular automobile is made for strength, enabling it to absorb shock during collisions. Steel sheet is punched into shape using a press and then assembled by welding.

However, for 3-D printed cars, "it is possible to create structures that absorb the impact of collisions inside a single part," explains Earle. The breakthrough was made possible by the new design allowed by the technology. Consequently, the assembly line for a body consists of one machine.

The company aims to satisfy U.S. regulations and begin testing on public roads this year.

Big Area Additive Manufacturing, the large 3-D printer used to produce the Strati, was developed by Oak Ridge and produced by U.S. machine tool manufacturer Cincinnati. It makes parts by ejecting melted plastic from 8mm nozzles.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, where 3-D printed cars are developed. Research and development are jointly conducted with Local Motors engineer James Earle.

"In the future," Earle said, "we think it will become possible to also fabricate the motor and suspension. Moreover, by combining multiple materials, we think it could be possible to make bumpers from materials more flexible than the auto body, for example."

The five-spindle machining center is used for additional processing of the fabricated body. The reason this is necessary is primarily to enhance the precision of parts assembled together. In particular, because the suspension is purchased from another company, it is necessary to finish the areas to be attached with high precision.

Fabrication of the Strati takes 44 hours and assembly takes another 24 hours. Earle said their aim is to shorten fabrication time to as little as 10-12 hours.

Compared to present-day cars, which are assembled in hours, it takes a long time to produce a single vehicle.

However, as Earle explains, Local Motors is not intending to mass-produce its vehicles. Instead, the company plans to produce a small number of cars that meet the desires of individual customers. For this, it is focused on shortening the time taken from design finalization to finished product, rather than assembly speed.

The design for the latest Strati prototype was finished in early December 2014 and completed vehicle in late January 2015. The entire process took just two months. Normally, the time taken for this process for mass-produced vehicles is 10 months. "Down the road, we want to shorten this to around one week," said Earle.

As the company's name suggests, Local Motors aims to set up locations around the country. The point of this is to develop and produce locally made products while reducing freight costs. The sites will not simply produce cars, they will also be places where customers can participate in designing and creating cars. The products will also be sold on the spot.

As of February, Local Motors had bases in Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada. During 2015, it plans to set up facilities in Knoxville and National Harbor, a commercial development in the state of Maryland near Washington, D.C.

The company plans to sell its cars by the end of 2015. It will first sell a low-speed model capable of around 50kph and with a range of around 130km; the car will be priced between $18,000 and $30,000. By the end of 2016, the maker hopes to sell cars that have twice the range and are capable of traveling on expressways. In addition to electric vehicles, it plans to develop fuel-powered cars. The company is now studying structures that block heat.

Designers who don't drive

In the U.S., cars are being developed without the usual industrial machinery. In Vietnam, vehicles are being created by designers who have never been behind the wheel.

A Nissan Techno Vietnam office, where autoparts are designed using 3-D CAD

Nissan Techno Vietnam in Hanoi is developing cars using 3-D computer-aided design software. It was established in 2001 as a subsidiary of vehicle design and development company Nissan Techno, based in Atsugi, in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture.

"At present, about 40% of our design work has been moved to Vietnam," said company official Keiichi Murata.

However, most of the engineers who work at Nissan Techno Vietnam do not drive cars. According to 2012 data from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, there are only 20 cars per 1,000 people in Vietnam. When Nissan Techno Vietnam was founded, almost all employees had never ridden in a car. So how did they become automotive engineers?

At virtually the same time that Nissan Techno Vietnam was established, a project known as V-3P began at Nissan Motor. The aim was to enable workers to simultaneously move forward with procedures such as design, layout and production technology, aimed at greatly shortening development times. One of the results of the project was cutting the development time for new cars in half.

Another outcome from V-3P was an information technology system known as "know-how CAD." Nissan Techno utilized the system to localize its technology in Vietnam. The system is made up of three primary pieces -- a digital flow for compiling design sequences, a 3-D knowledge template and a navigation system for design sequences.

Using the system is also simple. First, when work such as designing a minivan door is assigned, the corresponding work flow can be called up and displayed. The information shown by the software includes sequences of 3-D CAD data templates for the requested parts. Engineers proceed following the displayed sequences. New designs are created by altering the 3-D templates already stored in CAD. When there is a clear deviation from the suggested work process, the navigation system warns the user.

Today, the majority of Nissan Techno's 3-D CAD data creation happens in Vietnam. "There are 30,000 parts per vehicle, and their basic design has been entrusted to Vietnam. Japan is responsible for advanced work accompanying reconciliation," explained Murata.

In 2011, a teleconferencing system was also introduced. Now, engineers in Japan and Vietnam can share the same 3-D CAD screen to consult on design projects.

Nagako Kobayashi, editor-in-chief of Nikkei Information Strategy, contributed to this story.