Based in Enstone, United Kingdom, the Renault Sport Formula One Team has been using 3D Systems’ technologies in its core operations since 1998. As an early adopter of 3D printing for prototyping, the racing team’s use of 3D printing has followed the trajectory of the technology itself. Early uses included the function and fit design verification as well as jigs and fixtures for accurate assembly. As the partnership between the two companies has grown, 3D Systems’ application engineers have helped Renault Sport Formula One Team understand and seize the opportunities, materials and methodologies available to them.
Challenges:
Accelerate automotive research and development and fuel fast-paced performance innovation in an environment of constant change.
Each year, Renault Sport Formula One Team designs and builds a new car responding to rule changes and the natural R&D cycle aimed at improving car performance. As an example of the challenges that Formula One regulations changes can entail, the 2017 season updates included larger and heavier tires, a wider front wing, a lower and wider rear wing and a higher diffuser, which meant no parts were carried over from 2016 to 2017. Once the racing season begins, the pressure only continues to escalate: sometimes there is only a week between races to deliver engineering changes. Varying from purpose-built circuits to bumpy and tortuous street tracks, each race presents engineers with its own challenges related to architecture, climate and asphalt type.
Solutions:
3D Systems’ end-to-end solutions from printers and materials to applications expertise. The fleet of 3D Systems machines currently in use at Renault Sport Formula One Team includes six stereolithography (SLA) printers and three selective laser sintering (SLS) machines. Materials span from the Accura® range to build jigs and fixtures, fluid flow rigs, investment casting patterns, and wind tunnel parts to DuraForm® PA and DuraForm GF for parts used on the car itself such as electrical boxes and cooling ducts.
In terms of productivity and efficiency, 3D printing has dramatically increased Renault Sport Formula One Team’s ability to respond to the challenges presented from consistently new racing environments. 
Using SLA and SLS, complex jigs and fixtures, fluid flow rigs and on car components can be produced in hours rather than weeks, making 3D technologies ideal for the logistical challenges of Formula One racing.
3D printed investment casting patterns using SLA are also gaining traction at Enstone for applications such as gearbox and suspension components, allowing the team’s engineers to be more creative in part design now that restrictions on permissible complexities have been removed. Because the SLA process is so accurate, time is saved both on frontend pattern production as well as on backend proof machining for the finished casting.
Benefits:
The benefits of 3D Systems’ technologies, expertise and services connect deeply with mission-critical priorities for Renault Sport Formula One Team, including innovation, productivity and improved accuracy and precision.
For Bob Bell, Chief Technology Officer at Renault Sport Formula One Team, 3D Systems is more than a technology supplier: the two companies have a true partnership that delivers results and vast future potential. “Our partnership with 3D Systems has made us more productive and efficient over the last 20 years or so,” says Bell. “It’s opened up new avenues of development and usage that I expect will only escalate in the future.”
- Increase productivity by enabling a small team of engineers to produce hundreds of wind tunnel parts per week.
- Produce complex car components in hours rather than weeks with 3D Systems’ SLA and SLS.
- More innovative part designs with 3D printed investment casting patterns.
- Deliver assembly quality via the design and production of precise jigs and fixtures that would be impossible or too time intensive to make conventionally.
- Open up new avenues for development of innovative 3D printed parts for testing and on-car use.