Concept Laser
Concept Laser GoEngineer race car chassis
Concept Laser and GoEngineer’s first collaboration has been in the production of a race car chassis which will be a showcase product at future events, starting with AMUG 2017.
If you were at RAPID + TCT or the Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference this year, you may have spotted a strange but undeniably cool-looking RC car racing past your feet on the show floor. That car is the product of a partnership between GoEngineer and Concept Laser, the latest from the 3D technologies provider designed to showcase its extensive capabilities including 3D scanning, topology optimisation and 3D printing.
Taking an off-the-shelf Traxxas RC car, the team, led by Manufacturing Application Manager, Tyler Reid set out to re-design a traditional race car chassis using reverse engineering to create a complete integrated assembly that could be manufactured as one piece.
Starting by taking a 3D scan of the original body, the team used a Creaform HandySCAN 700 red laser scanner to collect 3D data that was then loaded into Geomagic to rebuild its geometry.
“In anticipation for upcoming design optimisation, we only reverse engineered some of the key mounting points on the chassis - the bits we would have to retain if we were going to re-use a lot of the components,” Tyler explained. “So things like the axel mount, where the electronics mount. For everything in between, we basically created a large working envelope.”
That envelope was then transported into solidThinking Inspire, a topology optimisation tool which allows you to specify load points, determine where the design will need material and perform FEA and simulation studies to show how the part will perform based on load considerations. With a basic, organic shape created, Tyler then used the PolyNURBS tool within Inspire to sculpt the bulk design before moving into SolidWorks to add details such as electronics mounts.
“Being a powder-bed laser machine, it had no problem with the complex geometry of the part,” says Tyler, noting that had the design been optimised for metal powder from the start, it could have looked quite different. “Support structures were able to be created and the shape is a great fit for this type of machine.”
Design journey from original Traxxas chassis (left) to optimised models in SolidWorks (centre and right).
Because the chassis is roughly 18 inches long, that severely restricts the choices of machine manufacturers that can handle a print of this size and complexity. Concept Laser’s X LINE 2000R is the world’s largest powder-bed metal AM build platform on the market at 31.5” x 16” x 20”, making it ideal to handle this design. Part count was reduced radically from seven individual injection moulded components to a singular 3D design printed in aluminium. Further complexity could be designed by hollowing out certain parts or including lattice structures to further reduce weight.
“If we can use design optimisation to maybe reduce weight, or increase rigidity or stiffness while maintaining strength then we're ahead of the game,” says Tyler. “We took 7 parts on this car and combined them down into one and that's a key benefit of AM, it encourages part consolidation and complexion on the individual part level rather than simplicity amongst many parts.”
Taking the project a step further, Tyler experimented with other parts of the vehicle, optimising the rear spoiler and bracket, control arms, the wheels and printing mould tolls to create carbon fibre components. Though the race car represents automotive innovation on a small scale, Tyler states that there is potential to use the lessons learned here in a full-scale automotive environment, using analysis-led design to create better performing, lightweight parts that reduce material costs and energy consumption. Though right now, it’s about dreaming big and starting small.
“To take the full chassis of a vehicle and to design optimise an entire chassis is actually a pretty difficult thing to do,” Tyler explained. “If I were to take one component, in real life in automotive, it could be the entire unibody structure like this, but in reality we would be doing so on smaller, simpler parts.”
The article originally appeared in TCT Magazine Europe Edition (25.4) and North America Edition (3.3). Download these issues for free on the TCT App (available on iOS and Android).
