Additive manufacturing (AM) company 3D Systems says that two racing car companies, Rodin Cars and Stewart-Haas Racing have made use of the company’s plastic and metal 3D printing technology to help improve speed and performance in their cars.
Rodin Cars, based in New Zealand, uses 3D Systems’ direct metal printing (DMP), selective laser sintering (SLS) and stereolithography (SLA) technologies to develop open-wheel cars for racetracks.
‘The extreme conditions of track racing leave no room for error,’ said David Dicker, founder of Rodin Cars. ‘Many components that we manufacture in-house have geometrical complexities that only 3D printing can provide.’
The track-car manufacturer uses the sPro 230 for SLS production parts, the ProX 800 for SLA tooling for carbon fiber forms using 3D Systems’ Accura Bluestonematerial, and the ProX DMP 320 to make titanium exhaust collectors and mufflers, uprights and hubs, as well as a range of component mount brackets, 3D Systems says. The company makes full-size prototypes and production components.
Stewart-Haas Racing, based in the US, uses 3D scanning with 3D Systems’ Geomagic Wrap reverse engineering software and the ProX 800 printer to produce components for race car component development and wind tunnel testing. Geomagic Wrap is used to collect scan data from the car components, process it, and create .stl files for shape deviation comparison, the company says. 3D Systems’ 3D Sprint software is used to prepare the CAD data and manage AM process on the ProX 800.
‘Everything we do is related to putting more speed into our cars,’ said Reneau Van Landingham, aerodynamic design group manager, Stewart-Haas Racing. ‘The faster we can develop concepts that improve the performance of our cars on the track, the better.’
This story uses material from 3D Systems, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
