In any sport it’s about coming in first, or scoring the most points in order to win. In horse racing, it’s about finishing first in the fastest time possible. Today, we’re going to look at one very lucky race horse nicknamed “Titanium Prints”.
This race horse had its hooves scanned using a handheld 3D scanner. The purpose of 3D scanning the horse’s hooves is simple, researchers wanted to make custom designed horseshoes to help the horse perform better and run quicker.
The custom designed horseshoes were printed off and fitted only a few hours after the initial 3D scanning had taken place. The shoes fit perfectly and were incredibly lightweight. This is the first instance that scientist have used 3D scanning and 3D printing in the creation of titanium race horseshoes. Showing again, the versatility of this technology and also the wide range of applications it can be used.
In the more traditional process of horseshoe making, aluminium is more commonly used. The thing with aluminium is each shoe can weigh up to 1kg or 2.2 lbs, and since a horse has four hooves that comes to 4kg or 8.8lbs extra weight slowing it down during the race. The introduction of titanium horseshoes is exciting, as it’s incredibly lightweight, and will help the horse to reach new levels of speed.
From one industry, to the next, 3D printing is breaking barriers, improving services, products, and overall quality. The possibilities with this technology is really endless. Titanium has already been used in the manufacturing of automobiles, in aerospace manufacturing, and what ties it all together is the fact a 3D printer was used in the creation process.
Three-dimensional scanning and printing is quick and incredibly accurate, no details are missed and quality certainly is not overlooked. The more we continue to hear of 3D printing and 3D scanning improvements, the way it’s changing things, only makes us lean stronger in favor of it.