Cali-based digital manufacturing company Hackrod has partnered with Siemens PLM software to create the world’s first car designed in virtual reality, engineered with AI and 3D printed, full size, in structural alloy.
The ‘La Bandita’ speedster is intended to serve as proof of concept for an entirely new industrial design to production methodology. Hackrod’s factory of the future, powered by the Siemens Digital Innovation Platform, will enable individuals, start-ups and small enterprises the unprecedented capability to create the product or their needs or dreams as easily as playing a video game.
With multiple tools from Siemens PLM Software including NX software, and the new cloud-based collaboration software Solid Edge Portal, Hackrod has access to the latest design and engineering tools to rapidly design, test and manufacture transport solutions without the need for massive industrial infrastructure or tooling budgets.
Hackrod is developing a platform to enable truly bespoke aesthetic design to prevail with guaranteed engineering solutions. Their platform leverages virtual reality as a design tool, IoT and machine learning to constantly evolve and perfect engineering systems, and industrial 3D printing to produce optimized hardware.
“The Hackrod and Siemens PLM Software partnership is vitally important,” said Dr. Slade Gardner, Hackrod CTO. “Our shared vision includes optimized aesthetic design, robust validated engineering, complex advanced manufacturing and rapid in-situ quality assessment. Because the Hackrod vision includes rapid data collection for product design and iteration; and customized manufacturing of sophisticated mechatronic systems, Siemens’ hardware connectivity for Industrial IoT and multi-axis additive manufacturing are critical to success. The products of our partnership will illustrate the impact that an efficient and motivated team can have access to world-class digital design, engineering, visualization, manufacturing, and inspection power.”
“Hackrod’s vision for automotive design is an exciting and unique use of our design and engineering software, and is completely in line with Siemens’ vision for the future of manufacturing,” said Bob Haubrock, Senior Vice President, Product Engineering Software, Siemens PLM Software. “We look forward to seeing the “La Bandita” speedster and using it as proof of concept for this revolutionary design to production methodology.”