At Ferrita Sweden AB, a manufacturer of advanced technical solutions in sound attenuation, vibration, thermal insulation and exhaust gas purification, a customer brings in a 2003 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
They wish to refine the hand-built supercharged V8 dream car, and Ferrita, a company said to have embraced the Swedish car culture and allows its team to be highly creative with, for example, exhaust design, takes on the challenge.
But the engineering constraints on the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren project were severe. New components would have to be designed to perfectly match the existing lines of the vehicle, and the original manufacturer had installed an entire exhaust system inside the front fender.
What's more, the original muffler was heavy, and the exhaust system presented considerations around complex fluid dynamics and back pressure. Oh, and the customer wanted their car back within a week.
Ferrita turned to additive manufacturing.
