Correspondent photo / Karla Dines Tom Banks of North Versailles, Pa., stands with his 1938 FL Harley-Davidson Knucklehead after a major restoration, which transformed it to its current condition. The motorcycle is on loan to the National Packard Museum for its annual motorcycle show. Banks gave a presentation Saturday at the museum about a new technology, 3-D printing, he is using at his company, Competition Distributing, to manufacture motorcycle parts.

WARREN — Antique motorcycle enthusiasts gathered Saturday at the National Packard Museum to hear Tom Banks’ presentation about the 3-D printing technology he uses to produce scarce vintage parts.

Banks, 65, owns a construction company, two motorcycle-related companies, and a motorcycle museum in rural Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. He recently began utilizing 3-D printing. His interest in motorcycles began at an early age because his father was an Indian motorcycle dealer and flat-track racer.

Three-and-a-half years ago, Banks purchased Competition Distributing, a 55-year-old antique motorcycle parts and accessories provider. Banks explained that casting previously had been their method of manufacturing parts.

Six months ago, he purchased a 3-D printer for $500,000, at which time he began the 3-D printing process to manufacture motorcycle parts such as cylinders, castings for frames and cases. Banks, together with Sean Jackson, who runs the company and has expertise in the manufacturing aspect of the business, began producing 3-D printed motorcycle parts.

This technology required the hiring of a full-time engineer as well as attending trade shows because of the large learning curve.

“If I wanted to make a motorcycle cylinder using the old casting technology, I had a wooden model made of it and took it to a guy who was a caster, and he would make that exact casting. The problem with casting is attrition. If I had 10 cylinders cast, maybe only eight of them were good,” Banks said.

Printing is the newest technology used for part manufacturing today. Printers as large as the auditorium at the National Packard Museum are used to manufacture airplane parts.

“About 80% of the aerospace industry is now printed. If they are willing to print that percentage of airplane parts in the sky, they must feel really confident about that technology. I am willing to do it on motorcycles,” Banks said.

3-D printing, also known as additive printing, uses metal powder such as aluminum, steel or metal alloys. The part being manufactured is constructed on a “build plate” using lasers and powdered metal, building the part in layers 100 microns thick. The powder used is about the consistency of flour and is reclaimed and reused in the process. The finished parts are then put through a hopper with stones to clean them. It is even possible to print parts with threads using this printing technology.

Banks has a niche motorcycle parts market, only selling parts for motorcycles manufactured from 1910 to 1936. Most of his business is for Harley-Davidson parts.

“So many people want those parts; however, they are unobtainable,” Banks said.

“If I just need one part that I can now scan, model, and put on a file, then I am golden. We can make as many as we need to from that one part. I am using very new technology on very old parts,” he said.

Very few companies in the United States are still casting parts. Casting parts requires producing multiple copies of the same part to make the process worthwhile. Banks said he could not sell all the parts that would be required from a single casting of a part. Casting can result in thousands of dollars in dead inventory sitting on a shelf waiting to be sold.

Banks explained the huge cost savings using 3-D printing.

“I have already modeled whatever it is that I have to sell. With printing, all that is sitting on a shelf are the canisters of metal powder ready to go into the printer. We are crawling now; we are getting ready to get up and walk, and pretty soon, we will be running. That machine is going to change the world for us,” Banks said.