Revolutionizing the Surfboard with 3D Printing
Sports & Innovation
The power of 3D printing technology is quickly becoming an invaluable tool for the manufacturing process of many different industries. Within the sports sector specifically, there is a growing range of applications that benefit from 3D printing as it brings improved efficiencies and a customized solution for professional athletes. As industry players are being made more aware of additive manufacturing techniques, more applications are being created- and of course, we wanted to get involved.
Red Bull High Performance reached out to us directly with the ambition of creating the world’s first 3D printed surfboard. The concept of the project was to take a traditional surfboard design and produce an exact replica. Current methodologies involve human inaccuracies such as foam cutting and molding. 3D printing helps to eliminate the need for all of that by allowing complex and very specific designs for balance and maneuverability. Furthermore, a 3D printed surfboard could be customized and fitted for specific surfers with their preference of weight and shape. Together with Red Bull, we modeled our surfboard after Australian pro surfer Mick Fanning’s 2014 Trestles Board which can be described effectively as the ocean equivalent of an F1 race car. To print a board good enough for a high caliber surfer such as Fanning, we knew we had to get every detail perfect including the shape, angles, and other little nuances.
Using the Fortus 900mc 3D printer from Stratasys, our team printed the prototype composed of ABS-M30 material which is a production-grade thermoplastic engineered for 3D printing with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printers. The entire process took about a month to fully realize into a prototype that we were proud of.
According to Chris McAloney, our Engineering Operations Manager here at Proto3000, one of the main challenges we encountered while designing the surfboard was weight. He says, “The whole concept of the board is that it can’t be too heavy. If it’s too heavy it can’t be maneuverable or balance properly. To the end, it was still something of a challenge as it was still overweight, but we were able to reduce a lot of it by manipulating the internal structure with honeycomb patterns.” To combat this in the future, we would most likely 3D print the frame or ribbing of the surfboard and produce the board itself out of a dissolvable core to ensure a lightweight. McAloney explains, “So now you print the digital design as a largely dissolvable core, wrap the fibrous material around it and seal it, and then we dissolve away the core. And what you’re left with is a seamless wrap and an extremely light board that has minimal material on the inside for strength.”
Moving forward, we see 3D printing and additive manufacturing methods playing a huge role in the future of the sports industry. Specifically, we believe the largest impact that this technology will have is in the manufacturing and design process. McAloney states, “we’re starting to see a lot of things take off in the sporting industry with 3D printing, specifically in the manufacturing of customized equipment. Anything where there’s a direct interface between a product and an athlete.” A great example is in manufacturing high-performance bicycles where 3D printing and laser scanning could print customized handlebars and frame support that provides the rider with increased comfort, ergonomics, and airflow. We look at 3D printing and additive manufacturing beyond creating an end part; we believe this technology will revolutionize the manufacturing process of traditional sports equipment and gear by improving efficiencies, decreasing your lead times, and decreasing costs.
In regards to surfing, we are super excited to see what the future holds and the advancements that 3D printing can bring to the industry. We would like to thank Red Bull and Stratasys for giving us this opportunity to push the envelope forward.
