Ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season,阿尔法·罗密欧F1团队Orlenhas once again turned to additive manufacturing in a bid to gain an edge on its racing rivals.
While the team’s latest challenger has fewer 3D printed aero-parts than before, due to a revamp in F1’s regulations, it’s still said to have multiple additive manufactured “critical components.” The nature of these parts remains shrouded in secrecy, but the team’s partnerAdditive Industrieshas now published acase study, which could provide a fascinating insight into their design heading into the new season.
索伯的持续创新
Although the Alfa Romeo team bears the name and badge of a heritage Italian sports car brand, in the world of Formula 1, it operates as part of the widerSauber Group。The Swiss racing outfit may have struggled to get to the front of the grid in recent years, but away from the track, it has become a key innovator in the world of automotive 3D printing.
Alongside Additive Industries, Sauber has set up a Metal 3D Printing Competence Center, where it initially intended to install two machines in three years, but now 3D prints over 22,000 parts per year. The company also underwentTÜV SÜD’sfirstAM生产现场认证在2020年底，在揭幕计划之前，将其F1专业知识复古汽车的3D打印备件, as part of a new service.
在赛道上，以阿尔法·罗密欧（Alfa Romeo）为幌子，索伯（Sauber）也继续推动单圈时间的收获。利用添加剂行业MetalFAB1system, for example, the team3D printed 304 parts for last year’s car, the C41, in a way that saw it reduce its related costs by up to 90%. Since then, the Alfa Romeo F1 Team has与AM解决方案合作too, to bolster its ability to post-process its end-use parts.
现在,为了优化构建的汽车the 2022 season, which brings an entirely new set of regulations, the team has not only announced a与Camozzi Group的技术合作关系，母公司Ingersoll Machine Tools, but worked with Additive Industries again, to move beyond aero-parts and create some of its vital structural elements.
取笑添加剂的C42
由于增材行业于2017年成为其供应商之一，因此Alfa Romeo F1团队已逐步将印刷零件的整合到汽车中。仅在2020年至2021年之间，该团队对ALSI10MG和TI64GD23的消费量翻了一番，而ScalMalloy使用量翻了三倍，但是C42包装150 3D印刷组件，但较少的空气动力学，现在据说更多是结构性的。
In Additive Industries’ case study, it has revealed that one such element of Alfa Romeo’s previous challenger to benefit from being 3D printed, was its front suspension chassis inserts. Designed to reinforce the C41’s sandwich panel chassis structure, and support the affixation of its front suspension and wheel tethers, these parts have traditionally been machined, put together and bonded on.
但是，使用3D打印，阿尔法·罗密欧（Alfa Romeo）发现它能够将插入物合并为单个零件，并通过强大的ti6al4v gd 23构建它们，使其能够在高负载下应对。实际上，在评估期间，零件受到物理测试钻机的约束，模拟了65kN抗议和30kn压缩压力的赛车条件，他们证明了能够承受各种悬架负荷的能力。
Using 3D modeling and NonLinear Finite Element Analysis, Alfa Romeo also managed to iteratively reduce the weight of the 110 x 100 x 130mm inserts to just 580 grams, introducing undercut features into its design that weren’t constrained by the need to leave access for tooling.
最终，附加行业为案例研究提供了一个成功故事，它展示了其技术在满足“苛刻F1生产要求”方面的能力，虽然可能并未完全表明已部署3D打印以构建C42的确切领域，但该公司嘲笑它建议“关键部分可能是什么。”
Those interested in readingAdditive Industries’ full case studyon 3D printed front suspension chassis inserts, can do so now via its website.
High-octane 3D printing in Formula 1
不仅是阿尔法·罗密欧（Alfa Romeo）希望利用3D打印的好处，以提高电网，而且近年来，许多其他一级方程式团队也转向了这项技术。迈凯轮赛车例如，已知已经使用过3D printing trackside for tooling and prototyping至少从2017年起申请，并且有一个long-running partnership with Stratasysthat continues to bear fruit.
Likewise, ahead of last season,威廉姆斯赛车与Nexa3Dthrough which it has begun producing custom parts for use within motorsport applications. Specifically, the team is said to be using theNXE4003D printer to manufacture功能性风洞组件, to help test the aerodynamic properties of its race cars.
Elsewhere, the FrenchAlpine F1 Teamrevealed that it had found a very similar use case for3D Systems’精确复合PIV材料在去年6月。据报道，使用树脂可以进行3D打印wind tunnel testing models, color-optimized to enable high-resolution aerodynamic data collection, in a way that allowed it to better understand the airflow over its 2021 race car.
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特色图片显示了Alfa Romeo F1团队Orlen的2022赛车的渲染。图片通过Alfa Romeo F1团队Orlen。
