Brake Duct Molds : Part Cost Comparison
95% Cost Savings
92% Time Savings
Problem
Whilst in-house facilities allow for Garry Rogers Motorsport to perform both low-level machining and composite fabrications, there has been no capability for CNC machining. This meant that whenever a project required complex parts to be completed, the team would have to refer to external manufacturers, which would cost time and money. The more outsourced parts which the team came to use, the more time they found they were spending on their design process; taking away from their main focus – the performance of their vehicles.
Through the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, the team have been able to test the airflow of their parts before having to manufacture them; however, the software regularly recommends slight but highly effective changes to the parts being designed. This means that ultimately, the result is a highly complex part – something which needs to be outsourced to be manufactured. The risk of spending too much time and money on looking for outside manufacturing has caused the engineers and designers of the racing team to shy away from making their parts more complex; leading to a loss in performance compared to competition.
Solution
The introduction of a 3D printer into Garry Rogers Motorsports’ design process gave the engineers and designers new opportunities in how they would be able to produce prototypes and production-standard parts. The Markforged 3D printers, with their ability to print high-tensile parts spliced with carbon fibre, provided the perfect opportunity for the team to manufacture their complex parts quickly and at low cost, without having to sacrifice on quality. Now, parts are made in full compliance with the suggestions of the CFD software, ensuring that the vehicles perform as well as possible. The cheaper nature of 3D printing has also been prevalent in their design process, with parts such as brake duct molds costing $925 less than their manufactured counterparts.
