Engineers at Modena, the homeland of the Italian Motor Valley, have created the first Italian electric motorcycle–Energica Ego. The prototype was built using a selective laser sintering 3D Printing/additive manufacturing process with a polyamide-based material reinforced with carbon fibers called Windform. This prototype is in the study and research phase to check the design, the aerodynamics and the specifications, and will make its debut soon.

The laser selectively fused powdered material by scanning cross-sections, generated from a 3D digital file description of the part. After each scan, the powder bed is lowered by one indexed layer thickness, and a new layer of material is applied on top, and the process is repeated until the part is complete. Thanks to this technology it is possible to create fairings, headlight covers and motorcycle components apart from the mechanical and electrical parts.

Once the parts are made, they can be metallized and painted. With free-form design, short fabrication time and the ability to build extremely complex geometry that cannot be easily tooled (or impossible to tool), custom production is realized.

Energica Ego is the first Italian electric motorcycle that recalls traditional endothermal motorcycles that can reach 240 km/h and can ride up to 150 km. The batteries charge in less than three hours with AC and a half an hour with DC. Energica Ego is also equipped with a KERS braking system that allows it to recover useful energy for use by the motorcycle like F1 cars.

Windform materials are resistant to water, oils and stress. They differ from other materials in their mechanical properties and high quality of the CRP Group.

Energica Ego will be available for purchase in 2015 with ABS and it will be manufactured with traditional technologies. The 3D-printed parts made of Windform, such as the fairing will be built with the suitable technologies of mass production. All metal parts such as the engine frame, the forks and the battery pack will be built with casted aluminum.

The CRP Group will also bring to the market a version of the Energica Ego without fairing. This model is built with 3D printing and Windform materials.

CRP Group
www.crp.eu
www.windform.it
www.energicasuperbike.com