www.3ders.org

Nov 30, 2017 | By Benedict

Chinese 3D printing and scanning company SHINING 3D has joined forces with the Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT) to develop 3D printed parts for a racing car. The project is part of an Alumni Mentor Program, with SHINING 3D sharing its expertise with engineering students.

If you’re an engineering student trying to design a racing car from scratch, you’d probably be very thankful if one of your country’s most exciting manufacturing companies came along to help. Luckily for a team of students at ZJUT, that’s exactly what has happened.

As part of an Alumni Mentor Program, Chinese 3D printing and 3D scanning specialist SHINING 3D—the company behind Einscan 3D scanners and other products—has got on board with a ZJUT engineering project that involves building a racing car.

But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill four-wheeler. Because of SHINING 3D’s experience in all things 3D, the ZJUT School of Engineering team has built its DIY car using 3D scanning and 3D printing techniques, resulting in a vehicle that is efficient, lightweight, and tailor-made for its driver.

The Alumni Mentor Program is the first of its kind at ZJUT, and involves 13 distinguished alumni—SHINING 3D included—mentoring 42 students who are majoring in mechanics.

While the students carried out the bulk of the work themselves, SHINING 3D’s influence can be seen all over the student-made racecar, starting with its steering wheel.

3D scanning and 3D printing helped realize the ZJUT team's racecar steering wheel

To create a lightweight steering wheel perfectly fitted to the driver’s hands, the engineering team used both 3D scanning and 3D printing. First, they used plasticine to get an idea of the driver’s handprints. This squishy imprint was then 3D scanned using an EinScan-SE 3D scanner, before being turned into a 3D model using CAD software.

Finally, the customized steering wheel was 3D printed in several pieces, before being assembled and fitted to the inside of the car.

But the steering wheel wasn’t the only part of the car to benefit from 3D technologies. Far from it.

The car's front end was built using an industrial 3D printer and resin casting process

A mold for the entire aerodynamic nose of the vehicle was 3D printed on an industrial-scale 3D printer courtesy of SHINING 3D, before being finished and hardened.

The 3D printed mold was later cast with liquid resin, which was cured for 24 hours in a vacuum bag fitted with an air pump. After this process was complete, the finished part was fitted with several layers of carbon fiber fabric.

The ZJUT team’s racecar was built with 3D scanning, 3D modeling, and 3D printing technologies, and required no existing mold to build any of its components. Ultimately, this helped the student team save both time and money on the project, also giving them the skills to carry out further 3D-related projects in the future. More importantly, however, the final 3D printed vehicle looks great.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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