With more than 11,000 athletes vying for medals at the upcoming Rio Olympic Games, each competitor will need all the help they can get. Thanks to advanced manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing athletes are becoming lighter, faster and smarter. Let`s take a look at the ways advanced technologies are being used for the Games this year.
Cycling
The Olympic velodrome is an indoor, wood-planked, 250M oval. Competitors sprint around this track on dedicated, ultralight bikes with no brakes in the discipline of pursuit. It was recently discovered that even when indoors, riders face a slight push of wind from the left side as they circle the track counter-clockwise. To take advantage of this, Felt designed a racing bike with the drive moved to the left side, which is actually more aerodynamic. Specially shaped, ultralight carbon fiber frame tubes and solid disc wheels also help to minimize weight and air friction.
Paralympics
Let`s not forget that the Paralympics are held immediately after the Olympic Games, also in Rio. Because these athletes face special needs, advanced manufacturing techniques are especially suited to provide custom solutions.
Denise Schindler is a German cyclist who will be wearing a 3D printed prosthetic leg in Rio, the first in Paralympic history. This artificial leg was created with the help of Autodesk, who used their Fusion 360 software to scan her other leg and then uploaded the results to a cloud-based server, allowing thousands of designers around the world to create more than 50 unique iterations from the generative program. The final shape was optimized for maximum strength and minimum weight and it`s a perfect fit. Such designs can be printed and finished in five days, while costing much less than their traditional counterparts.
Right now the cutting-edge technologies are used most often by the wealthier nations, but 3D printing is becoming radically cheaper and more accessible, allowing all nations a chance to compete fairly.
Technologies Making Olympians Faster, Lighter And Smarter
2016 08/30