Automotive

Stewart-Haas seeks NASCAR edge with 32% lighter 3D printed brake pedals

NASCAR团队Stewart-Haas Racing变成了3 d打印技术,以提高performance of the brakes fitted to one of its challengers for this year’s championship.

Working withAutodesk,斯图尔特·哈斯(Stewart-Haas)设法使用Fusion 360生成设计软件使其制动踏板轻32%,同时提高其刚性和整体安全性。3D打印通过Renishaw’sRenam 500qsystem, the revamped pedal has now been deployed on Cole Custer’s 750 bhp Ford Mustang, with the aim of sending his lap times tumbling and helping him climb theCup Series积分。

“Being able to utilize both Autodesk’s generative design and Renishaw’s metal printing capabilities will unlock doors not available previously using traditional manufacturing methods,” said Walter Mitchell, Engineering Integration Manager at Stewart-Haas Racing, “leading to increased performance, higher speeds and decreased lap times.”

将刹车施加重量

Like any motorsport, NASCAR is all about fine margins and teams pushing their designs to the absolute limits of the sport’s regulations, to gain a competitive edge. With its cars currently sat in 10th, 23rd, 24th and 28th in the championship, Stewart-Haas is no different, and the team adopted 3D printing earlier in the season with the aim of developing upgrades that boost its drivers up the order.

Prior to switching to additive manufacturing, Stewart-Haas first partnered with Autodesk, using the iterative design features of Fusion 360 to refine and simulate the performance of its new brake pedal. Compared to the conventional part, the team were able to revise its design to feature complex latticed internal structures, and projections showed it to be much stiffer and lighter than before.

According to Mike Grau, who leads Autodesk’s research team, Fusion 360 proved critical to the pedal’s optimization. “In the past, with additive technologies, you had the issue of ‘How do you create the simulation design?’” he告诉Designnews。“You have all these complex lattice structures and hollow structures. How do you create an assembly design, but also deliver a simulation design?”

Stewart-Haas的新鲜3D打印制动踏板。
Stewart-Haas’ freshly-3D printed brake pedals. Photo via Autodesk.

为此,格劳说,欧特克和圣ewart-Haas decided to reduce the number of individual elements within their pedal design down to the bare minimum, to make things more manageable. In doing so, the firms’ engineers were able to create a lattice with tens of thousands of elements rather than millions, which was vital in allowing them to run the simulation processes they needed to.

Having revamped its brake pedal’s design, Stewart-Haas sent it over to Renishaw, where it was 3D printed from titanium and sand-blasted to provide it with an end-use finish. However, given the component’s safety-critical nature, the team needed to stress-test it under race conditions prior to use, thus they subjected it to the full 3,000-pound load limit of its custom-made test fixture.

Under duress, the upgraded pedal not only managed to resist failure, but it displayed 50% higher stiffness than its predecessor. For Autodesk, the project has ultimately proved the potential of its software within motorsport part optimization, and even though the process took two months to complete, the firm maintains that this timescale could be reduced dramatically in future.

Grau总结道:“ [最初]我们花了一天的时间才能创建一个单元。”“两个星期后,我们能够在30分钟内创建30个单元,但它撞了几次计算机。六个月后,我们可以在几分钟之内进行整个设计的晶格。如果您查看我们来自哪里以及我们做什么,我们所取得的进步几乎是指数级的。”

Braking barriers with 3D printing

Automotive manufacturers are increasingly turning to topology optimization and generative design as a means of developing 3D printable parts with end-use applications. Just last year,Fraunhofer IAPT与之合作菲亚特克莱斯勒汽车工程师将其中一辆跑车合并成十二个组件为单一组件3D printed suspension part,比原始重量低36%。

同样地,Porsche也与特朗普andMAHLEto additive manufactureupgraded engine pistonsfor its flagship 911 supercar. Using an AI-led 3D printing process, the manufacturer has been able to integrate a cooling duct into the ‘crown’ of experimental pistons, which once fitted, effectively added 30 bhp to the vehicle’s engine.

在刹车方面,有几家汽车公司在过去几年中提出了与3D打印相关组件的想法。2019年7月,Carbon Performance使用其专有的SK3L370N平台3D打印制动卡钳,不久之后布加迪managed to achieve something similar,producing titanium caliperswith anSLM 500system.

The nominations for the2021 3D Printing Industry Awards现在打开。您认为谁应该成为今年演出的入围名单?现在有你的发言权。

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特色图片显示了科尔·卡斯特(Cole Custer)的斯图尔特·哈斯(Stewart-Haas)赛车福特野马(Ford Mustang)。通过NASCAR照片。