OBJECT KEEPS AP RACING ON TRACK
17/09/2004
Coventry-based AP Racing, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of brake and clutch systems for motorsport and specialist road-going vehicles, is achieving significant time and cost savings in its design processes, with the Objet QuadraTempo™ 3D PolyJet™ printing system.
Supplied and installed by Rugby-based HK Technologies, the Objet QuadraTempo enables the company to produce high resolution 3D output for many purposes, including design verification, customer form, fit and function testing prior to production and to demonstrate components to subcontract suppliers prior to commitment to tooling.
The key benefits being reduced design to manufacture lead times, the elimination of costs associated with tooling errors and increased customer confidence; as designs can be ratified by the customer prior to manufacture.
The Objet QuadraTempo system was installed at AP Racing in April 2002 and although it is still early days, the company is already seeing savings in design times, through increased confidence earlier in the design cycle.
“The reaction to the introduction of the new technology has been tremendous,” says Nick Mennell, Director of Engineering at AP Racing. “We produced our first part on the Objet QuadraTempo in April for a customer involved in rallying. The order for the part was placed on Thursday and on the very next day we were able to give the customer an accurate 3D output from the printer for him to take away to check for fit. In fact, the customer was so excited he took the part away before we even had the chance to clean it up.”
Based on the principles of inkjet printing technology, the Objet QuadraTempo operates in a fashion similar to any other networked printer, accepting STL file input from all popular 3D CAD packages, with AP Racing using Solidworks.
The print head of the Objet QuadraTempo features 1,536 nozzles, half of which deposit the photopolymer material and half of which lay down the support material. The printer uses Objet’s highly durable and flexible proprietary FullCure™ photopolymer resin, which is UV cured as it is deposited, enabling the rapid production of fully hardened and functional components.
With 95% of the racecars on the F1 grid using AP Racing’s clutches and over 50% using its braking systems, the company is particularly busy during the F1 season. A team of 24 full-time designers are employed by the company, a number of which are dedicated solely to F1 development.
“Clutches for every customer in the F1 line-up are different and subject to continuous change throughout the season, literally this can be from race to race,” Nick explains. “It is in this area that the QuadraTempo 3D inkjet printer provides particular benefits, as we can adapt a product one day, leave the model printing overnight and have a new prototype ready for the customer the next day. In addition, the photopolymer material is particularly easy to paint, enabling us to supply parts that, until you pick them up, are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.”
Nick continues: “You cannot beat the feeling of holding a physical design in your hand, it gives us and our partners ultimate confidence in the design.”
AP Racing actually started looking at rapid prototyping systems some five years ago, but was unable to find a solution suited to their requirements, especially in terms of performance – with particular regard to speed, material suitability and budget. “At the time, there was only really one other 3D printer on the market, but it was unable to offer us a big enough build platform. The wax based material it used was too weak for our purposes and it was also not dimensionally accurate enough. Furthermore, the supports generated by the system required significant time to ‘clean up’ so, all in all, we decided it was not for us and that we would wait until something more suited to our needs came along,” says Nick.
The solution presented itself to AP Racing at the end of last year, in the form of the Objet QuadraTempo 3D printer. The combination of a 270mm(X) x 300mm(Y) x 200mm(Z) build platform and a print resolution of 600dpi(X), 300dpi(Y) and 1270dpi(Z), coupled with the highly functional and durable resins seemed to present the ideal solution.
Furthermore, as the Objet QuadraTempo constructs support structures from a gel-based material, components are easily cleaned by the application of a simple water jet, resulting in high-clarity, fully hardened parts.
Until the installation of the Objet QuadraTempo, AP Racing had subcontracted its rapid prototyping requirements to a nearby bureau that supplied it with SLA models. “Bringing the process in-house and under our own control not only saves us costs on subcontract services, it also enables us to provide far quicker turnarounds to our customer base. Since the installation of the 3D printer we have not outsourced a single model,” Nick says.
AP Racing estimates that the average product cycle of any of the components it produces is two and a half years and, with more than 20,000 live products at any one time in its database, the company is very design focussed. As Nick comments: “Anything we can do that is both time and cost effective to speed the design to manufacture cycle is key to helping us maintain and grow our market position in what is a very competitive environment. Investment in new technology, such as the Objet printer is key to our development in this area.”
Nick continues: “The system is very user friendly. It sits in its own room next to the design office and is looked after by the design and IT teams. Typically, the designers set the machine building overnight, so those components are ready for review next day. The accuracy of the machine is excellent. Recently, for example, we built two halves of a component on the Objet QuadraTempo in two different latitudes. When we took them off the machine and cleaned them up, they fitted together perfectly.”
In the longer term, AP Racing is confident that the Objet QuadraTempo 3D printer will enable the company to achieve further and easily quantifiable savings in both time and cost, as the system becomes increasingly integrated within its design and manufacturing processes.
“We have waited five years to find a technology that suits our needs in terms of speed, accuracy and material properties. Although it is early days, we are confident that we have made the right choice with the Objet QuadraTempo.”
About Objet:
Objet Geometries Ltd is a privately held corporation established in 1998. The company is engaged in the research, development, production, marketing and worldwide sales and service of innovative photopolymer inkjet network systems, based on the unique Objet PolyJet™ technology. The company’s products include Quadra™, QuadraTempo™, Studio™ application and the FullCure™ family of photopolymer materials. The company’s technology is protected by 15 patents, in addition to full ownership of all intellectual properties issued to Cubital Ltd since 1987. The company operates a wholly owned US sales and customer service subsidiary, Objet Geometries, Inc. and a wholly owned European sales and support office, Objet Geometries Europe SA.
Objet solutions are marketed and supported in the UK by the Rugby based reseller, HK Technologies Ltd.
For further information contact Martin Watmough, Sales Manager – Rapid Prototyping Systems, HK Technologies Ltd, 6 Forum Drive, Leicester Road, Rugby, Warwickshire. CV21 1NY. Tel: 01788 577288. Fax: 01788 562808. Email: martin.watmough@hktechnologies.com. Web: www.hktechnologies.com
