Arts & Design Archives | INTAMSYS

The Benefit of 3D Printing for Engines in Motorsports

INTAMSYS — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 08:52:23 +0000

Probably most associated with Formula 1, auto racing is the fastest and one of the most technologically advanced sports in the world. Production technology for motorsports, in particular, is at the forefront of innovation in manufacturing techniques. In the course of joint development with motor racing manufacturers, industrial 3D printer manufacturer INTAMSYS has also become involved in advanced manufacturing processes, thus further confirming its competitive position in the additive market.

Hartley Engines and Motorsport from New Zealand is a leading company designing, developing, and manufacturing high-end engines and components for motorsports and small car companies. Some of their achievements include many championship wins with their motorsports customers all over New Zealand and Australia, multiple land speed records at Bonneville (in a 1000cc Mini, of all things), and plenty of awards for innovation in motorsport engineering. Their flagship engines include their 10,000rpm, 1,000+HP V12, and their high RPM ‘Formula 1 Inspired’ quad-cam V8.

In the past, their main business had always been the production of engines for top teams in high-level competitions, with most of their development being incredibly secretive and only for select customers. Recently, they made the move into supplying engine kits and development to other engine developers. They have also just started retailing more of their components to general consumers all over the world for use in their own projects.

“We came to realize that we simply couldn’t—or didn’t want to build engines for every competitor. There simply aren’t enough hours in a day. But we found we could supply a better service to everyone by making our range of components and development available to everybody,” said Nelson Hartley, owner of Hartley Engines.

One of Hartley Engines’ strengths is its ability to very quickly design and develop products and get them ready for production. Their factory consists of 5-axis CNC mills, CNC lathes, Engine Dynos, and airflow testing equipment, just to name a few pieces of machinery. Recently, they made the move to the next level with the additive manufacturing of production parts.

Nelson Hartley (Right) discusses design ideas in the FUNMAT HT workshop

Nelson and his team have been developing the use of 3D printed parts in their engines for several years, and although successful in testing, had a lot of trouble getting them to a point of being “production ready.”

“Very early on, I identified some serious benefits of using 3D printing. The material properties of some of the high-end polymers are seriously impressive and perfect for things like our intake manifolds and induction parts.” Being designers and engineers, they have found novel ways of using printed parts alongside billet parts and carbon composite parts in what Nelson refers to as a “hybrid manufacturing method.” While the COVID pandemic had an effect on their in-house production, one job on the list of Hartley Engines and Motorsport was to redesign the throttle bodies that were used on their intakes. The individual throttle bodies are a billet aluminum part, machined in-house, but the secret to their intakes are the 3D printed intake runners and trumpets.

“The material we are using for our intake runners is a high-temperature nylon (PA), with 25% carbon fiber… The way PA-CF deals with temperature outperforms aluminum, it transfers heat very slowly, keeping our intake path very cool, aiding combustion once the cool air gets into the engine.”

“The added bonus of 3D printing our runners and trumpets is the design flexibility. We take the intake shape very seriously. It is not simply just a round hole machined into a piece of plate. We can 3D print extremely intricate curves and shapes that line up with the CAD models of our cylinder heads.” Before receiving their first INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT, Hartley Engines’ success rate of printing high-temperature polymers was about 15-20%.

“We were wasting more prints than we could afford, and when some of the plastics cost upwards of $500/kg (plus freight to NZ), it was getting to the point of not being viable to print the parts. I knew it could be successful, but we just couldn’t get it to work every time.”“Since we took delivery of our first INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT, we have had a 95% success rate with our prints… I had a lot of people in the industry tell me that there was no way we could make production parts on a 3D printer, but the INTAMSYS has proven that wrong!”

Race engine using a hybrid of 3D printed parts, billet parts, & pre-preg carbon fiber parts

Since purchasing their first INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT, Hartley Engines have since received its second machine, and are now building a dedicated additive manufacturing department in their workshop with intention of installing two to four more INTAMSYS FUNMAT HTs once it is ready. As their business grows, Hartley Engines and Motorsport is always facing the problem of getting parts to market as quickly as possible. Everything they make is unique and requires new approaches to solving problems.

“Anyone who says that 3D printers are going to replace all CNC machines is lying, but, likewise, anyone who says you can’t do production work on a cost-effective 3D printer like our INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT is being short-sighted”

“Our INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT was literally 1/30^th the cost of our 5-axis CNC machine, and the parts we are making on it are just as valuable to the consumer… So, even if the per-part time is much slower on the printer, I can afford to have multiple printers running at the same time in batch work. It actually becomes more efficient in some cases than setting up the CNC machines. Our return on investment has been extremely high!”

As anybody who has worked in traditional manufacturing methods knows, setup and tooling are both expensive and time-consuming.

“We used to spend hours setting up our machines and making tooling just to machine or fabricate one part. Now, all I have to do is heat up the INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT and press start. No tooling or setup required.”

3D printed parts are mainly used on air-horns & runners for intake manifolds.

3D printing is also used for making the plenum for a turbo engine. Seen on the left of the below pictures is composite tooling for the part, first printed in a few segments, then joined together with the entire surface carefully polished. The one on the right is a final, high-performance product made out of the composite tooling after it went through the whole carbon fiber process of laying and curing.

3D printed parts are mainly used on air-horns & runners for intake manifolds.

After using the INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT, Hartley Engines and Motorsport said they were already confident that the printed part would be very good but were amazed at the performance of it. Nelson said, “The quality of our high-temperature parts is amazing, and we are just starting to get into production with the parts we sell … We have been developing this for about 3-4 years, and since we got the INTAMSYS FUNMAT HT we have been able to solve 99% of the problems we were having before.”

Now with a bigger range of sizes, more space for linkages, and with faster production in mind, the next step is to get through the large list of intake manifolds and plena Hartley Engines and Motorsport is designing, using this new lean-manufacturing method they have developed.

Read the original article here : https://3dprint.com/291495/the-benefit-of-3d-printing-for-engines-in-motorsports/

The post The Benefit of 3D Printing for Engines in Motorsports appeared first on INTAMSYS.

Limit human error and speed up the production with INTAMSYS 3D printer.

INTAMSYS — Tue, 31 May 2022 12:45:46 +0000

Ed Cooley is a professional photographer and a self-described problem-solver who’s always thinking of new ideas to improve his camera gear. This eventually led to the purchase of his first 3D printer, a low-cost machine primarily geared towards hobbyists and makers. With it, he would do everything from designing custom brackets to creating new mounts, enclosures, and other everyday camera gear. While this opened Ed’s eyes to what was possible with 3D printing, his printers were not cutting it when it came to making strong parts that could withstand daily use.

In addition to being a photographer himself, he started Steam Art & Graphics, a business printing photos, and art onto metal substrates for other photographers and artists. This business turned out to be very successful, growing by over 500% per year. While this was incredible, such rapid growth required his team to rethink their workflow. Knowing what 3D printing was capable of, Ed began looking for a better alternative. This is where the INTAMSYS 3D printer would come into play.

An example of metal prints

THE PROBLEM

Steam Art & Graphics had to incorporate automation into their processes to maintain their rapid growth. After inspecting their workflow, the team identified one specific task that could be greatly improved.

As they were dealing with custom-sized pieces, any time an order would come in, workers would need to essentially build a new frame saw from scratch. This process involved them getting out a ruler and getting precise measurements so that they would be able to accomplish the needed sized cuts. As this was a game of millimeters, human error would often come into play, and measurements often had mistakes. Because of the high cost of the substrate, every mistake would cost the company between $100 – $300, which added up fast since they were a rapidly growing startup. These frequent mistakes not only resulted in lost materials but also time, which tacked on even more costs to the problem.

SOLUTION

Steam Art & Graphics decided to automate the frame saw creation process by building a tool that would perfectly align and cut each individual piece. They turned to 3D printing and built several prototypes on multiple different printers but quickly realized they were creating subpar parts. While acceptable for prototyping, the parts didn’t have the necessary strength or heat resistance required to hold up to actual daily use.

His team knew that in order for this process to work, they needed a printer that was capable of producing stronger parts. However, most printers capable of fulfilling their requirements had costs in the 6+ figure range, something that was out of their current budget. That’s when they found INTAMSYS, which offered a 3D printer capable of producing strong parts at a fraction of the cost.

BENEFITS OF THE INTAMSYS 3D PRINTER

Ed contacted INTAMSYS, who provided him with a sample part using PEEK material, a high-performance thermoplastic filament known for its industrial strength. After the part came out perfectly, Ed’s team went ahead and purchased the INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410 3D printer.

Due to the printer’s ease of use, Steam Art & Graphics was able to have the INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410 up and running on their production floor quickly. In no time at all, they were able to have the frame cutting tool fully built and automated. The frame automation project used a combination of PETG, CF-PEI where stiffness and strength was a concern.

With the introduction of the INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410 3D printer, Ed’s company now required zero manual work to cut frames. Once their system receives an order, it sends instructions to the automated 3D printed frame saw, and it makes perfect cuts every single time. On top of getting rid of human error, the machine is also able to cut frames 30% faster than its human counterparts. The printer can also work longer hours than humans and is currently running nearly non-stop on the factory floor. Due to this, Steam Art & Graphics can finish orders that would normally take 3-5 days in 1-2 days. This results in them being able to save thousands of dollars while improving production output.

FUTURE PLANS

Incorporating the INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410 3D printer into his company’s workflow enabled the company to keep up with a 500% increase in demand while simultaneously lowering costs and improving efficiency. After seeing the success that the 3D printer had, Ed’s company already has its sights set on finding new ways to further expand automation inside their factory. Their next project is to design and build a robot that would automatically cut boxes based on their respective project’s dimensions. They plan to do all of this with the help of the INTAMSYS FUNMAT PRO 410 3D printer.

ABOUT STEAM ART AND GRAPHICS

Their specialty is in fine art museum-quality artwork. Equipped with the latest technologies, they have all the capabilities you’ll need to realize your artist vision:
Fine Art Metal Prints, Industry Standard Floating, Frames, Custom Museum Quality Frames, Artwork Scanning, and Digital Editing Services, Color Correction, and Image Upsizing.

info@streamart.cc
steamartandgraphics.com

ABOUT INTAMSYS

INTAMSYS is a world-leading high-tech company providing 3D printing and industrial direct additive manufacturing solutions for high-performance materials. Focusing on aerospace, automotive, electronic manufacturing, consumer goods, healthcare, scientific research, and other industries, the company provides comprehensive additive manufacturing solutions from functional test prototyping, tooling, and fixture manufacturing to direct mass production of final products, covering equipment, software, and high-performance materials.

info@intamsys.com

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