A Hertfordshire prototyping company have teamed up with a university race team to 3D print parts of a single-seat car for a student competition.
Ogle Models have previous experience of working with teams competing in Formula Student, the world’s biggest student motorsport event, with Coventry University’s Phoenix Racing team linking up with Ogle for a second straight year.
The Letchworth-based business had worked with The Phoenix Racing team ahead of last year’s event. Ogle were approached to provide its expertise in 3D print technology, used to help the team reduce weight while maintaining optimum performance for its single-seat vehicle in a greatly reduced timescale.
Ogle were able to use selective laser sintering (SLS) technology to print the race car’s intake runners; due to the complex geometries and the pinpoint accuracy required, creating the part using Nylon.
Formula Student is an annual event held at Silverstone, with student race teams working to build and race their very own single seat vehicles against rival teams from universities around the globe. In its 20 years of existence, Formula Student has become one of Europe’s top educational engineering competitions, with more than 130 student teams from over 30 countries in attendance.
According to Senior Lecturer in Motorsport Engineering at Coventry University, Richard Nicholson, explained the Ogle’s role with the team this year, saying: “Ogle printed the intake runners which are a critical part of the engine; it is a precision designed component which had a huge impact on the performance of the vehicle.
“Working with Ogle is always a great experience, Matthew and whoever he brings with him is very engaging with the team and the students”
For Ogle, the project was another chance to work with a talented team of students: “It has been a pleasure working with The Phoenix Racing Team at Coventry University over the past couple of years,” commented Matt White, senior sales engineer at Ogle, and a former Coventry University student. “They are an amazing bunch of designers and engineers with such creative ideas.
“In our day-to-day lives at Ogle, we’re working on parts for several global car manufacturers and it’s great to bring that industrial 3D printing expertise to Coventry University.”
Source: http://www.oglemodels.com