DAYNA is an electric motorcycle with 3D printed parts built for mountain rescues
Spanish design students have developed an enduro electric motorcycle for rescue operations, with high-tech connectivity and 3D printed parts!
DAYNA is an electric motorcycle developed and designed by 11 students from Elisava at Barcelona’s University School of Design & Engineering, making use of 19 3D printed parts and built for first aiders to reach those in trouble in difficult terrain.
The electric motorcycle was developed for the ‘Barcelona Smartmoto Challenge’, which tasks young engineers with creating smart designs for off-road purposes in 2020 - as well as testing it off-road!
This rescue-enduro is perfect for navigating difficult terrain and is fitted with smart connectivity systems (GPS, Bluetooth and proximity sensors) to detect the location of the rider and bike, allowing for rapid response teams to get to the scene quickly. Plus, it's electric, so it's eco-friendly!
DAYNA was assembled with 19 3D printed parts with Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) from specialist printer manufacturer BCN3D.
Electric motorcycle for rescue missions, with GPS and 3D printing!
The project manager of the Elisava Racing Team, Jacobo Mateos, said:
“With their knowledge of materials and FFF printing technology, the team at BCN3D helped us to finish defining the shape of the components to facilitate printing, as well as configure the parts to have better quality and reduce supports and problems when printing,”
The fender was 3D printed with thermoplastic and reinforced with glass fibre, noted in particular as being a part that would benefit from being able to be quickly printed and fitted to the bike if needed.
“Thanks to fiber-reinforced materials, in this case, carbon fiber, we were able to implement the pieces we wanted, with the versatility in the shape of the piece that FFF printing allows us to do,” said Mateos.
This freedom to print parts where and when needed is perfect for an enduro motorcycle traversing the most difficult terrain - thing like fenders and fairings tend to get a bit bashed up. If you can get back to HQ and print a new one, you're pretty well equipped to go anywhere without worry.
3D printing could be the future for motorcycle parts
Whilst other parts, particularly those that would come into contact with the battery and electric parts, were printed with ABS (no, not the braking system, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). This electric enduro is even planned to go in to commercial production!
Design work with 3D printing has been seen in various motorcycle concepts, frame designs and racing paddocks now, and being able to quickly design, print and fit parts to a motorcycle opens the potential for a fascinating future in motorcycle design.
U-turning ships closing shipping lanes, global pandemics halting foreign travel and trade - it doesn’t matter too much if you can just print the part you need instead of getting it sent to you. Food for thought.
