The Brunel University London race team has created a 3D printed manifold part for its BR-XX car, which will be used to compete at Formula Student races in the UK and Italy.
Formula Student, which is more than 20 years old, is Europe's most established educational motorsport competition, run in the UK by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
The team worked with 3D printing company Renishaw with the original design geometry for the manifold part and then worked with the company to improve the part for production using a multi-laser RenAM 500Q AM system. This included splitting the part into smaller assemblies and looking at how to eliminate overhangs where possible.
‘To design for AM, overhangs could not be over 55° from the vertical axis on both overhangs and each part requires smooth transitions of cross-sectional thickness,’ said Matthew Crouch, a mechanical engineering student and one of the managers of theBrunel Racing team. ‘Additive manufacturing proved itself to be a much more suitable manufacturing method than a traditional approach. The final part performs better in the car due to its increased strength and we also had the added benefit of reduced post processing.’
This story uses material from Renishaw, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
