CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA – MAY 29: The world gets an unintentional look at a 3D printed part when … [+]
NASC
The Next Gen car, which debuted in the Cup series this season after years of testing and development, features modern improvements such as a six-speed sequential transmission, independent rear suspension, and a transaxle. One of the biggest changes, meant to curb costs, is the use of common parts single-sourced through suppliers. And one of those common parts is being manufactured, for the first time in the sport, using 3D printing technology.
NASCAR had an extra year to test the Next Gen car when the debut was delayed due to Covid. During that testing drivers complained of heat in the cockpit. NASCAR responded by designing an air-duct in the front windshield.
NASCAR designed a vent and teamed with Stratasys
Stratasys has two divisions, one which makes 3D printers and materials, and a printing division which manufacturers parts. NASCAR has purchased and used Stratasys printers in the past, but those printers can’t make parts at the production level needed to supply the fleet of Next Gen racecars.
Stratasys Direct, which was named a NASCAR competition partner, uses a plastic powder bed fusion process that produces just the right part needed for the car.
“There would be no other way to make it other than 3D printing,” Pat Carey vice president of strategic growth for Stratasys said. “You couldn’t mold it, you couldn’t cast it and you couldn’t C and C it, because it’s a very unique shape.
“3D printing allows complexity you can’t make any other way. And that’s what’s really unique about these parts we’re making, the vent parts. The way that the tubes bend and all that, you actually couldn’t do it any other way.”
While printing 3D parts for all racecars is new in NASCAR, 3D printing technology has been around the sport for nearly two decades. Joe Gibbs Racing began using Stratasys 3D printers 18 years ago for such things as tools and parts used for airflow or steering. Now many teams have 3D printers and do the same.
“If you’re in this sport, you notice it’s a lot of follow the leaders,” Mark Bringle technical sponsorship and marketing director for Joe Gibbs Racing said. “So, whoever’s maintaining the highest level of performance, most teams are looking at how they achieve that.”
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell holds one of the new 3D printed ventilation units. JGR’s 3D … [+]
Whether its parts for the car, or tools, or something else to help find speed on the track, the faster a new tool, or part can get to the car, the better. 3D printing helps teams like JGR do just that.
“With us it’s manufacturing and how we take a design from our engineering group and get it on a car in a matter of days versus traditional weeks and months,” Bringle said. “In our sport, the quicker you do that, obviously the faster you get a competitive edge each and every weekend.”
3D printing and the ability to get parts to the track quicker is part of why JGR has become one of the predominant teams in the sport. In 2019 the team won 19 races and the NASCAR Cup series championship.
“That was our golden year,” Bringle said. “We found some things that it took the other teams quite some time to figure out well. What the 3D printing does, in my opinion, is you go through the development process so much quicker because our engineers, our manufacturing is all under one roof here.”
Keeping it in house has helped JGR keep its competitive edge.
“So number one, your designs, your products are kept proprietary,” Bringle said. “Second of all, we can literally walk from the engineering group down to the printers and you can queue up a part within hours versus dealing with an outside provider. It would take days to get into queue and go through to quoting. And having it here has been invaluable to actually get the development time pushed through much quicker than any traditional outside (company).
“One example is we went through a part that was in our steering area. It had five operations on a traditional mill. And what we were able to do is print off each one of those per day, so we got the job done in five days versus five weeks.”
But with common parts from sole sources, the Next Gen car puts all teams on a level playing field. With the old car teams had a large envelope in which they could push. Bigger teams with better resources, engineers and the like could discover places in the car to find just that little extra bit of speed.
But now NASCAR controls the parts issued to the teams, including new 3D printed ones. The NASCAR Research and Development team designed, and printed using a Stratasys Fortus 450mc 3D printer, an underside NACA duct for engine cooling for the cars. That part was on display to the world unintentionally, during last weekend’s race at Charlotte when driver Chris Buescher’s Ford flipped.
There will be more 3D printed parts in the future. But for now at least teams still have an envelope to push; it’s just a bit smaller.
“We’ve gone from a 100% manufacturing,” Bringle said. “They’ve cut it down to about 30%. A lot of those parts that’s in that 30% range are 3D printed parts that we can still run on the car. There’s about 25 to 30 parts that come right off the machines and go right to the car that we’re still able to manufacture here.”
While the technology has changed, and matured, one thing remains the same: the speed on the track, starts in the shop. Though even that phrase has matured.
“We call it concept to car” Bringle said. “As quickly as you can get that concept to the car the faster you are.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregengle/2022/06/01/hot-off-the-press-nascar-teams-with-stratasys-for-3d-printed-parts/