SECTION TITLE COMPOSITES
materials. According to Wooldridge, the Windform SP held up especially well to the high heat of the overflowing oil and coolant: “No significant damage was noted to either modules with water coolant temperature reaching ~125°C and the oil reaching ~150°C.” “Although the importance of weight savings shouldn’t be understated, carbon filled composites give our team something even more important – the freedom to design and prototype without the restriction of conventional machining or the cost of expensive tooling,” he adds. “All of the designs which we have manufactured through our partnership with CRP have contained intricate geometries, thin shells or complicated lofted surfaces which have made them prohibitively difficult or expensive to create otherwise.”
STEERING WHEEL Tis year, the team had a new faceplate made for their steering wheel for use with improved driver control switches. Te part was made using Windform XT 2.0, another carbon fibre-filled composite
from the Windform range. “Windform XT 2.0 provided a better finished part as none of the in-house prints we made could provide the resistance to heat, impact, and direct sunlight needed from the part,” says Wooldridge. “In our controls system, CRP USA has helped immensely with the steering wheel and it has become a centrepiece of our car, especially at showcases where we can pass around the wheel and give everyone a hands-on experience.”
Te main body of the steering wheel is made from Windform XT 2.0, while the hand grips were manufactured from Windform RL, a thermoplastic elastomer from the Windform range.
CURRENT CAR COMPONENTS Continuing in the powertrain system of the car, CRP USA has previously help the UVic team to develop numerous iterations of their oil pan over the past few years, each made from Windform SP due to its impact and high temperature resistance.
“Te flexibility in the manufacturing
process has allowed us to design a reduction in the overall height of the oil pan and incorporate anti- sloshing features such as one-way baffle doors directly into the print,” explains Wooldridge. Reducing the overall height allows the team to drop the engine’s position in the chassis, lowering the weight distribution of the car and improving on-track, dynamic performance. In addition, CRP USA also 3D printed a custom oil pick-up to go with the oil pan design, once again made from Windform SP. UVic Formula Racing’s aerodynamics system also uses front wing inserts 3D printed in Windform XT 2.0. Tese inserts act as a transition from the central wing element to the two outer ones while providing the attachment points for the front wing onto the chassis. “It is in the area of design freedom in which CRP’s Windform composite materials excel particularly,” Wooldridge adds. “Te range of material characteristics available through CRP removes even more design restrictions, pushing our team to constantly re-
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