Home >> Case Studies >> SLS gives strength and durability to Oxford Brookes' 2007 car

SLS gives strength and durability to Oxford Brookes' 2007 car

3T RPD Ltd have sponsored the Oxford Brookes team for several years, and were delighted to support them again by supplying parts for their 2007 race car. Using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology, 3T built two housings in Glass Filled Nylon for the car's electronic components. One houses the electronics which control the front end of the car and the other contains the engine computer, relays, fuses and rear end control electronics

The car's electronics needed to be housed in compact and lightweight boxes and it was proving difficult for the team's engineers to find exactly the right sized boxes for the application. To minimise overall weight and thereby improve performance, they needed to reduce the amount of parts within the car. Thus they came upon the idea to produce boxes that were precisely the right size for the components and incorporate an integral fuse box to keep the relays in place. Realistically, this couldn't be done by any other manufacturing method other than Rapid Prototyping because the tooling costs are far too high for a one-off part.

Once the team had opted to pursue Rapid Prototyping, their designers knew they could make the housings as intricate as they liked, as SLS is capable of building parts with very high levels of complexity. They were able to design the housings around the internal components to fit precisely to the race car.

To give the components a finished look they were sprayed black, which also helped prevent oil discolouring them. They were fitted to the race car and have performed well during preliminary testing, during which it became very apparent that the students had drastically underestimated the strength of the Nylon material used to produce them. Due to its strength and toughness, it would be possible to build future housings with half or maybe even a quarter of the wall thickness they have now, further reducing the weight of the car.

Furthermore, the strength of the housings meant that they could also act as structural supports for the radiator duct and fan, as well as giving them sufficient protection in the event of a crash.

The car was shipped out to the States for the US Formula Student competition in mid-May 2007. Further testing will take place throughout June in preparation for the Formula Student UK event at Silverstone in mid-July, and it will also be taking part in the Germany competition in August.

The parts that 3T have produced for previous Oxford Brookes teams are still being used on the current race cars, having proved to be extremely durable and reliable. Complex custom fuel injection intakes were built using SLS two years ago, giving their cars a power advantage over their competition, and they are still going strong today.

"We can do things with rapid prototyping that would not
otherwise be possible on our tight timescale."

Ian Cooke, Oxford Brookes University
Designer of the 2005 Rapid Prototyped Intake and Throttle System

What is Formula Student?

Formula Student is an international competition run by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) that challenges university students from all over the world to design, build, develop, market and compete as a team with a small single seater racing car.

3T RPD Ltd supports students every year as they believe this real-life exercise in design and manufacture, together with the business elements of automotive engineering, teaches them valuable lessons and results in the development of highly talented young engineers.

Specialists in the manufacture of Rapid Prototypes using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology, the parts supplied by 3T give high levels of strength, durability and functionality, enabling the teams to use them in anger in true working environments and as fully operational parts for the duration of their testing and race events.

Driver training and pre-event scrutinising takes place at the Rockingham Festival on 3rd July 2007, with Judging Days and an Endurance Event Day taking place on 12th-15th July 2007 at the Silverstone race circuit.

Home | Contact Us | Newsletter | Request A Quote | Case Studies | Latest News |About Us | Our Services | Seminars | Technical Data | Site Map

3T RPD LTD
Fulton Court, Wofford Way, New Greenham Park, Newbury, Berkshire, RG19 6HD, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)1635 580284 | Fax: +44 (0)1635 569857 | E-mail: post@3trpd.co.uk