Mclarens use of 3D printers

[Wigan301072]

It was revealed just before the Bahrain Grand Prix, that Mclaren had become the first team to use an 3D printer to produce some of the Smaller components on this season's car. It also revealed that Mclaren had used 3D printer to make a rear wing flap. But the question I want answering is simple - can a 3D printed component be as strong as a standard made one?

3D printers in F1 could massively reduce the cost of producing components, as well as cutting the amount of time it takes to design, make and test a component and add it to a car. Though we are a long long way from large scale use of 3D printers in F1..

There could be a unexpected plus though..

The smaller teams could benefit from the lower cost of producing updates via a 3D printer. At present, due to the way money and prize money is split, smaller teams find it extremely difficult to afford front wings with the growing number of small flaps and winglets, we see in front wings of the larger better funded teams at the front of the grid...

This could help these smaller teams close the gap to the teams in front of them and reduce the over all costs incurred making nearly every thing using fibreglass..

Obviously all teams could benefit from 3D printing, but the money saved for the smaller teams could then be spent on a more efficient engine or more efficient front wings etc.

F1 as always is unpredictable and often comes up with ideas which effects not just f1. but have Mclaren jumped the gun on this? Who knows.. Time will tell...

[adrianjordan]

My opinion is simple: F1 is a high-tech sport and should remain at the forefront of technical innovations both on, and off, the track. 3D printing parts represents that kind of innovation to me and should absolutely be a part of F1 and, I think, will increasingly be used in the future.

Imagine, if you will, that a team has to carry X number of spare parts. If they could 3D print new aero parts in the event of damage to existing ones then that would, surely mean carrying far fewer spares and therefore, I would think, decrease freight costs etc. Win-win!!

[Jersey Tom]

Rapid prototyping? Of course it will be part of F1, pro motorsport, modern engineering, etc. But your proposed extension of it replacing a lot of fabrication, or broken parts, and making smaller teams competitive etc. etc. - no. I think that's way too pie-in-the-sky.

Rapid prototyping - of which "3d printing" is one very broad and generic term covering an array of technologies - has its name for a reason. You can rapidly prototype something.

In some cases, yes, there are components that you can create via stereolithography, powder metallurgy and sintering, etc. This has been around since before I was a freshman in college, nearly 15 years ago. In some cases it can be far more cost effective than traditional manufacturing methods, particularly in small volume and not a high load / high stress application.

But there are a lot of things it just won't replace. It won't replace a forging. A composite... I know I've seen people working on this sort of thing. Can't say whether the strength is comparable or whether it's faster or slower than conventional means. For a one-off? Quite conceivably faster than having to cut all the tools and molds to do a conventional layup. For doing a batch of 10 front wings or something? Don't know, conventional method may be more reasonable once all the tooling is done.

In general I think it's good to be cautiously optimistic, at best, about "wonder technologies."

[Tim.Wright]

RP parts have been in F1 for quite a few years now - I don't think what McLaren are doing now is particularly ground breaking.

I cant see much in the way of freight savings. The parts aren't made out of fresh air. You need to transport the powders to make the parts and during the process you usually need way more powder than actually makes it into the final part. Plus the fact that you need to lug the machine (which would obviously be physically bigger than the biggest part you make) + power supply around - my guess it that it's probably worse for freight.

[PhillipM]

It was revealed just before the Bahrain Grand Prix, that Mclaren had become the first team to use an 3D printer to produce some of the Smaller components on this season's car.

Not true, not even remotely, their press release was just that PR to coincide with a new tie-up with Stratsys - even Mclaren themselves have been 3d printing at the the track for years, it's common up and down the paddock for small parts of the front wing/cascade/brake duct blockers, etc.

[markc]

Its called additive manufacturing and it's very important.

Imagine a 3D printed steel piston, for example, with all the strength benefits without the weight penalty, you can also print the cooling galleries integral to the piston and thereby save more weight with more focused cooling and improved even temperature gradient across the crown (minus the weight needed for the cooling loop!) And that's just one example. Another: Stronger block/head material without the need for solid mass in between as you have with reductive manufacturing (CNC), and therefore a lighter overall part.

Patent for additive manufactured piston:
https://www.google.com/patents/WO2014165734A1?cl=en
SAE paper on similar:
http://papers.sae.org/2015-01-0505/

Or you could have more organic innards of a structure mimicking nature to refine the load paths while minimising the material needed... Birds bones for example.
Oldie from 2010:
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/24 ... facturing/
and newer from 2013:
http://www.naturalnews.com/041731_manuf ... itive.html
also nice vid here:
http://www.themanufacturer.com/videos/h ... -printing/

It's not just rapid prototyping, indeed some of these methods take days to produce a final product, but these are production ready parts.

[zac510]

I'm curious about using the 3D printer not from the perspective of prototyping, but from the perspective of saving on shipping parts around the world.

For example instead of shipping some parts that will only last for one race weekend, just print them at the track instead of shipping from UK > Bahrain. Especially where they might ship brake ducts of 2-3 variations and a brace of spares,
instead they could just print a single specification on the Friday morning once the weekend's weather conditions are known and then spare sets as the drivers 'consume' them.

Maybe even chairs, tables and other pieces of furniture used in and around the garage could be printed on the day they arrive and upon leaving, donated to a local charity or somesuch.

[markc]

Personally I agree - and I can see that happening in the world at large as well, but that's another story!!

With regards to the printer McLaren had at Bahrain: its good for ABSplus filament in 9 colours including nectarine and black for the closest colour match!! You can also have 2 bays going at the same time. It allows for 2 different print types as well: speed or precision, the former being 30% faster and the latter being a finer end result.

http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/id ... nt-se-plus