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Ford reveals new rapid prototyping and low-volume production techniques [w/video]

It's called "F3T," and that stands for Ford Free-form Fabrication Technology. The process that The Blue Oval has developed means being able to sidestep the weeks-long process of tool-and-die making when engineers want to construct a new part, allowing them to fabricate a three-dimensional part from a two-dimensional sheet of metal in just hours.
While F3T is being developed it is limited to "low-volume prototyping or even low-volume niche vehicles," but the next step is to evaluate it for use in Ford's global manufacturing facilities. You can find out more about it in the video and the press release below.

The 1965 Ford Mustang could have looked a lot different

The 1965 Ford Mustang is unquestionably an automotive design icon, and nearly every generation of Mustang has some connection to that original car. Because it's such a universally-known vehicle, we were amazed to see all the different designs that were being considered. Head of Ford's archives Ted Ryan recently shared photos of design proposals for the original Mustang on Twitter that he and Jamie Myler found, and we reached out to them to find out more. As Ryan initially noted, the photos were taken on August 19, 1962, and they are proposals for the Ford Mustang. Apparently Ford had committed to doing a Falcon-based youth-oriented car at this point, and it did have plans to launch the car in 1964 for the 1965 model year. But after having little success with early design proposals, the company asked all of its design studios — the Advanced Studio, Lincoln-Mercury Studio and Ford Studio — to submit proposals. With only about two years before the planned launch, Ford was understandably short on time, and it's believed that the studios only had a month to create and present these designs. Lincoln-Mercury design proposal View 8 Photos The majority of the designs, a total of five, came from the Advanced Studio, and part of this was because they already had a couple of concept designs in reserve it could present. Two other models representing three design possibilities came from Lincoln-Mercury, and just one model with two options came from Ford. The Advanced Studio proposals are shown in the gallery at the very top of this article, and the Lincoln-Mercury and Ford proposals are in the gallery directly above this paragraph. The Advanced Studio's most radical design is the one that was clearly related to the Mustang I concept that would be shown later that year with huge wraparound rear glass, turbine-inspired bumpers and enormous side scoops. The other proposals from the studio were more conservative, featuring simple lines, grilles reminiscent of the Falcon, and one even borrowing the jet-thruster-style taillights made famous on the Thunderbird. Lincoln-Mercury had some impressively bold designs, particularly its fastback that had buttresses to extend the shape all the way to the tail. This car had two different side trim possibilities. The other Lincoln-Mercury design was toned down a bit, but had two interesting possibilities for side detailing, as well as some crisp, low-profile tail fins.

Autoblog Podcast #390

Episode #390 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing and Sebastian Blanco from Autoblog Green talk about the 2015 Ford Mustang specs, the 2016 Smart models, a proposal to add real-world numbers to EPA economy tests and the potential downside of autonomous cars. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #390: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: 2015 Ford Mustang specs 2016 Smart FourTwo and FourFour EPA wants road tests The downside of autonomous cars In the Autoblog Garage: 2014 Nissan Leaf 2015 Audi A3 Sportback E-Tron 2014 Scion tC Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Sebastian Blanco Runtime: 01:33:35 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Mustang Specs - 34:40 2016 Smart Models - 51:14 EPA Tests - 01:02:57 Autonomous Cars - 01:11:19 Q&A - 01:21:22 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts Audi Ford Nissan Scion smart Electric Hybrid