POWERTRAIN
A cutaway view of the Quaife QBE69G sequential gearbox
T
he OEM car market might be stealing all the limelight when it comes to the public perception of new
powertrains, but Tier 1 suppliers are also working hard to improve products and take advantage of new technological developments. This is particularly so when it
comes to automotive transmissions. One company that occupies a unique space in the sector is RT Quaife Engineering, as it supplies gearboxes, shafts and diff s to a diverse range of customers from entry-level club motorsport competitors all the way up to OEM clients including Ford and Lotus. Other OEMs could also soon become customers as discussions are ongoing behind-the-scenes. The company was founded by
Rod Quaife in 1965 and initially manufactured close-ratio fi ve speed conversions for Norton and Triumph motorbikes. He worked in a small shed in Penshurst, Kent, southeast England. Success came quickly, and within fi ve years there were class victories at the Isle of Man TT and at the Daytona speedway. By the 1970s, the company had diversifi ed and became involved with the car market. Ben Ashton is a manager at
This cutaway shows a Ford unit
the fi rm, which now has two manufacturing sites totalling over
50,000 square feet in Gillingham and near Sevenoaks, Kent. Citing recent examples of where technology is accelerating development, he says, “We are always looking at ways to make our manufacturing processes more eff icient, either to reduce costs or to increase productivity. We employ a combination of CAD, real-life testing and third-party simulation analysis. We are currently developing one of our gearboxes, looking to reduce the noise. We have invested in a development car so we can carry out testing on the road and on track, we have set up a small dyno so we can bench test the gearbox after each change, and are working with transmission analysis specialists to highlight any areas that need improvement. He continues: “We use 3D modelling
software in our design off ice, and have made use of sub-contractors for the occasional rapid prototyping requirements we have. For example, for our recently developed sequential gearbox for the Mk3 Focus RS and ST, we had two 3D printed casting patterns made for the transmission case so we could build the development gearboxes sooner and without the capital investment in production patterns for castings. This allowed us to have a test gearbox in our development car with
www.engineerlive.com 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
