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Materialise Aerion hits the track
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Materialise and Formula Group T
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Areion's nose with printed shark skin texture and logo
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Materialise and Formula Group T
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Areion parts lifted from the resin vat of Materialise's enormous Mammoth machines.
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Materialise and Formula Group T
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The side-pod of the Formula Group T car
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Materialise and Formula Group T
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The Areion hits the track
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Materialise and Formula Group T
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Materialise and Formula Group T
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Everyone wants to be different, just like everyone else, and this development from leaders of Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Materialise could provide a glimpse out how cars of the future could be personalized.
Imagine being able to buy the chassis and engine for your car, then designing your own body shell (or maybe pick from a list of pre-designed templates). Group Formula T and Materialise have done just that on a a small scale with the Areion race car. With a significant proprtion of the final design created by Materialise on its Mammoth stereolithography machines.
I am sure there would be some issues regarding safety for mass production cars, not to mention cost, compliance with recyclability legislation... OK, so there are loads of hurdles in the way of this plan — but not in the way of Formula Group T as you can see in the release below:
Competing in the prestigious Formula Student 2012 challenge, a 16-man strong team of next-generation engineers from Group T have unveiled the world’s first race car created in great part through 3D Printing: the Areion. Named after the divinely-bred, extremely swift, immortal horse of Greek mythology, the Areion is a powerhouse of innovation and green technology. On July 31st, it lived up to its name on the Hockenheim race circuit by going from zero to 100km/h in just 4 seconds and achieving a top speed of 141km/h on the track. Cutting-edge technologies incorporated into their eco-friendly race car included an electric drive train, bio-composite materials, and of course, Additive Manufacturing on a grand scale with Materialise.
Using Materialise’s Mammoth stereolithography machines the Formula Group T team were able to not only print the entire body of the car, but to also integrate some unique features directly into the design. Therefore, working in close collaboration with engineers at Materialise, this is exactly what they achieved: going from initial shell design to a fully finished 3D Printed car body in just three weeks.
Starting from Formula Group T’s design for the outer shell, engineers at Materialise quickly got to work. Within a week, Materialise engineers had applied their experience from other projects to the creation of an intelligent 3D Printed car body with integrated clips and connection points. This allows for the easy assembly of the shell and therefore, faster access to the inner workings of the car when maintenance is needed.
Printed directly onto the nose of the race car is a shark skin texture, similar to that found on high-tech competition swimsuits. As with the swimsuits, the aim of the teeth-like ridges is to reduce drag, increase thrust, and improve performance on race day. Whether or not the texture helped the Areion cut through the air is still to be determined, but one thing is for sure – the shark skin made the nose of the car look great!
Both the right and left side pods were designed and printed with complex cooling channels. Printed into the left side pod are a nozzle behind the radiator and a diffuser, which optimize cooling by creating the ideal flow of air through the radiator. A fan is installed behind the radiator in order to do this even at low speeds and while the car is stationary. In the right side pod, complex channels were developed and printed to create a cyclone effect that removes water and dirt from the air before it enters the engine compartment.
With two races completed, the Formula Group T team is already the proud winner of two awards and an impressive ranking for a first-time team in the competition. While in the UK at the Silverstone racing circuit, the team was honored with the Best Teamwork Award by Airbus and Koen Huybrechts, who was responsible for the drivetrain, won the Craig Dawson most valuable team member award. While in Germany on the Hockenheim racing circuit, the team finished in a well-deserved 11th position and found themselves among other top teams in this international competition.
