Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - December 7, 2017
Take Home a Kitty for Christmas
When it comes to holiday gift ideas, what could be more purr-fect than a new kitten? Madeline, featured above, is just one of many adorable felines waiting to be adopted through Kitten Rescue. Check out our
Pets column for information on her and other furry friends.
Visionary Gets the Green Light to
Transform Automotive Industry
By Rob McCarthy
A dirty little secret about hybrids and electric
cars is they’re only better for the environment
once they leave the car assembly plant. They’re
harder to create than conventional automobiles,
and forging aluminum instead of steel to make
cars lighter requires more energy and creates
more pollution. It’s not a win-win situation…yet.
That’s what makes the research and
development work going on at Divergent 3D in
Torrance so interesting. This 2014 technology
startup says it has come up with the blueprint
for how carmakers can make the manufacturing
process as clean as the cleaner-running, highmileage
people movers rolling off Detroit
assembly lines.
Remaking the automotive-manufacturing
industry starts with 3D printers using strong
carbon-fiber materials instead of forged stainless
steel. Divergent’s Chief Executive Officer
Kevin Czinger and his team of engineers and
designers are putting together an end-to-end
system to build car chassis that can be assembled
in minutes, according to the company. “The
Divergent system allows automakers and
technology companies to innovate at a much
faster rate—scaling up volume production at
only a fraction of the cost while also alleviating
environmental damage,” Czinger said last month.
Automotive experts say that the manufacturing
process accounts for up to 20 percent of a
vehicle’s lifetime greenhouse gas emissions.
There is considerable interest in the car plant
technology coming from China, where an
investor group has pumped $65 million into
Divergent’s ongoing research and development
in Torrance.
The Chinese involvement with Divergent
makes sense because that nation’s car market is
the biggest in the world and it’s growing. The
government is attempting to reduce pollution
and modernize the local auto industry, according
to writer Tycho Deijter, who covers the Asian
car market and contributes to Forbes magazine.
Divergent, which recently won a Petersen
Automotive Museum Award for Leadership
& Innovation, describes itself as a technology
development and licensing company. Licensing
opportunities abound in China, where there
are 130 passenger car brands. The majority of
car brands are made locally in China, Deijter
noted. “The number of brands is staggering,”
he wrote in a May 2016 piece for Forbes, and
“new brands keep popping up.”
Divergent will use the $65 million to further
develop and commercialize the eco-friendly car
technology, it said. With the latest round of
funding, CEO Czinger says his venture is fully
funded to complete “our reference factory.”
The company sees the emerging Chinese
electric car market as a primary customer for
its technology.
The industrial 3D printers create interlinking
parts of the car’s frame using a process known
as additive manufacturing. The printers keep
adding layers of material--in this case, carbon
fiber--guided by computer software. Additive
manufacturing has the potential to create new
body parts and organs from living tissue.
A 3D printer works much like a home or
office laser printer. Open a file, hit print and
wait for the copy. The difference is that 3D
printing jets build three-dimensional prototypes
and parts using 100 different kinds of materials,
from plastic to metal to nylon. The process is so
unique that people in the fields of manufacturing,
medicine and consumer products predict it’s
the next industrial revolution.
The other difference between the printercopier
and a 3D printer is how a digital file is
reproduced. The 3D printer creates an image
from a digital file, starting at the bottom and
working its way up.
The process has been likened to a layer cake,
where the baker lays down each layer one at
a time until the entire cake is formed. There
are videos on the Internet about 3D printing,
and the unbelievable things that really smart
people have designed, like a fully functioning
jet engine.
These car factories of the future could be
cheaper to open, according to Czinger. He says
that an auto plan could be built at one-tenth of
the half-billion cost to erect and equip. With
3D printers running on computer-assisted
design programs, a big box warehouse could
be easily outfitted into an auto assembly plant,
Divergent’s founder says.
Divergent 3D has made a promise to its
investor that it can build a production line for
20,000 cars a year, equipped with industrial-sized
3-D metal printers, laser cutters and assembly
robots, for close to $50 million. That would allow
carmakers to shave $6,700 off their production
costs per vehicle, the company estimates.
Divergent 3D expects to build prototypes
for customers next year and then open a
small-production factory in 2019 in the Los
Angeles area, according to published reports.
The company is fully funded for the research
and development work ahead, its founder says.
This technology has put Detroit and Japanese
carmakers on notice.
“Divergent will continue its strong momentum
in leading the adoption of an economically and
environmentally transformative manufacturing
solution—building safer, stronger and more
profitable eco-friendly vehicles at mass volumes,”
said Czinger, who worked as a Wall Street banker
before launching his manufacturing venture.
Software-guided manufacturing--at the heart
of the car manufacturing revolutionaries at
Divergent--also has applications for South Bay’s
aerospace industry. Printers can make single
aircraft parts from metal or plastic, saving time
and keeping the manufacturing on site.
Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno drove
a prototype car made by Divergent for an
episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. The show is
posted on YouTube at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=vPv7PwS50OE. •
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Finance..................................4
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Legals............................... 6-7
Looking Up...........................2
Pets........................................8
Police Reports.....................3
Seniors..................................4
Sports....................................5
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
72˚/53˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
78˚/55˚
Sunday
AM Clouds/
PM Sun
79˚/54˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne