It’s Sunday, June 25th, 2023. Sixty-six cars are charging to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, navigating the 156 turns across the 20 kilometres of road to hopefully be the fastest in one of six divisions of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
One of those cars is a 2019 Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport, driven by David Donohue on behalf of Brumos Motorsport in the Time Attack 1 division. Time Attack 1 is the division for two- and four-wheel drive vehicles, with only closed cockpit four-wheeled vehicles able to participate. Donohue leaves the rest of the division in his wake, completing the ascent in a record-breaking time of 9:18:053 to become Time Attack 1 division champion.
It was a success shared by the Advanced Materials Group of Airtech, which had contributed its additive manufacturing (AM) expertise in the hope, not only of helping Donohue over the finish line in record time, but of proving out its burgeoning additive tooling process.
In a TCT Award-winning project, Airtech 3D printed an 8.4ft mould for a carbon fibre splitter which works to divert air under the car and increase aerodynamic downforce. Airtech came to be involved in Brumos’ preparations for the Pikes Peak race on the back of an ongoing collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which has seen the partners work to develop a circular lifecycle for moulding materials. Through this work, the partners are looking to understand the full carbon footprint of the material reclamation process, compare it to a traditional manufacturing workflow, and calculate the value proposition they are able to provide for their customers.
“[The work with Brumos] was a bolt on to that collaboration,” Gregory Haye, Director of AM at Airtech Advanced Materials Group told TCT, “because we’re thinking holistically and we had the opportunity to live it in this application.”
Airtech Advanced Materials
Finished tool
This application saw Airtech deploy a Thermwood 1040 Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing printer and its Dahltram C-250CF Polycarbonate to manufacture the autoclave capable tool that would be used to produce Brumos’ aerodynamic splitter. The material was developed from a recycled formulation, with ORNL providing the personnel and equipment for the cutting, shredding and repalletization of the previous generation 3D printed mould. Verus Engineering, another collaborator in the project, added its aerodynamics expertise to the effort, creating new surfaces for the revised splitter mould design, as well as simulation prior to manufacturing. Post-print, the near-net mould surface was machined on a 5-axis CNC to high tolerance.
It all helped to enable Donohue to take steep and sharp turns at 140mph, knowing the splitter would give the car the required traction to maintain stability. And while one might think achieving such an engineering triumph would come at a cost, Airtech suggests there was a reduced total spend in the manufacture of the tool compared to conventional processes, inclusive of an approximate 25% cost saving on materials and a lead time reduction of a couple of weeks down to 3-4 business days.
Get your FREE print subscription to TCT Magazine.
Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
The project also saved more than 300lbs of material from being disposed in landfill, with Airtech able to reclaim 100% of the previous generation mould material for use in future programmes. Airtech also says less new polymer and energy-intensive carbon fibre was produced from raw feedstocks.
“This is reality. This is possible,” Haye said. “The highest levels of motorsport in the world are interested in this technology.”
Airtech Advanced Materials
Dahltram resins
Airtech is now working to build on the success of the Brumos splitter tooling project and has expressed a willingness to adjust its design methodologies to conform what people are used to. For while Airtech is hoping to convince people of its tooling approach, it is not doing so stubbornly, and nor is it prepared to do so without being able to back up its sales pitch.
“We’re trying to change people’s minds to do this not that. So, the value proposition has to be strong,” Haye finished. “People have to have a reason to want a change, otherwise you never see change in the industry. So, it has to be value rich, and it has to be transparent, otherwise people would just do as they’ve done before. [We want to] further expose our customers to the value proposition of sustainability in this technology. I hate just talking about things. I love when we do things, and we have evidence.”
This article originally appeared inside TCT Europe Edition Vol. 32 Issue 5 and TCT North American Edition Vol. 10 Issue 5. Subscribe here to receive your FREE print copy of TCT Magazine, delivered to your door six times a year.
