Sports
In this vertical category segment, you will find information on he use of additive manufacturing in professional sports.
The use of additive manufacturing in motorsports was one of the very first real end-use parts production applications. In Formula 1 top teams like Mercedes and Ferrari have been using 3D printing for various applications for more than a decade. Mercedes uses metal 3D printing service providers for final part production and Ferrari has recently installed two Renishaw metal PBF 3D printers. However, both teams have also been heavy users of AM for prototyping and Ferrari, in particular, has used 3D printing for composite tooling. More recently McLaren and Sabuer-Alfa Romeo also publicized their use of additive manufacturing. Likewise, several NASCAR (Team Penske with Stratasys and Hendrik Motorsports with Cincinnati Inc among others) and Indycar racing teams have been known to use 3D printing. Former NASCAR champion Keselowski even went as far as founding his own metal 3D printing service provider.
Closer to actual consumers, 3D printing has been used to both develop and produce a number of consumer sporting equipment products and parts. These include snowboarding bindings, goggles, ski boots, golf clubs, and many more products. In terms of directly 3D printed products, professional football helmets are paving the way to better consumer helmets at all levels, while iin hockey the same can be said for mouthguards. entire recreational sporting vehicles such as an underwater scooter and several types of entire bicycles (and eBikes such as this one from Arevo) and bicycle parts. Carbon’s technology, in particular, is now being used to 3D print bike saddles, by fizik and Specialized among others.