Field Report: Does 3D Printing Have A Place In Motorsport?

We know that using 3D printing is great for creating prototype parts, but creating real final parts with great structural integrity is becoming more and more accessible.

We're here with Grant from Intansys to get more information.

Welcome to High Performance Academy's tuned in Field Report podcast series.

In these special midweek episodes, we look back through our archives to find the best conversations we've had through years worth of attending the best automotive events across the globe.

We've pulled the audio from these tech-filled interviews with some of the industry's most well-known figures and presented it in podcast format for you to enjoy as a quick hit of insider knowledge 3D printing additive manufacturing.

It's becoming a really popular option for people nowadays, especially with the access to CAD, that whole industry really growing the way it is.

Can you just explain to us briefly what it is you do and then also the basis of 3D printing additive manufacturing?

Yeah, yeah, so we do fused filament fabrication.

What that is is really a thermoplastic getting heated up and then deposited in a line that ends up becoming a whole layer.

So the head will travel around to the outside and then infill.

The Z-stage drops down and then deposits another layer on top of that.

As those layers build up, you end up with a fully 3D printed model.

The process of that has a bunch of specifics, but that's the general idea.

So building up layers to create a 3D model and that 3D model coming from something that we're modeling in cad software generally, the actual method or process of getting that out of cad and into the 3d printer uses like an in-between stage, referred to as a slicer.

Can you do you guys have your own slicer and can you explain what that does?

yeah, yeah.

So we have our own slicer, Secura based slicer called Intam Suite.

Really, what that does is it takes an STL file and breaks it down into individual layers.

It also gives you the control to change what those layers are, what the infill percentage is, flow control over different areas of the part for like the outer wall versus the inner wall, control over support structures, how it adheres to the build plate.

Really everything in the how the printer is moving and doing what it needs to is done in our slicing software.

So in Fusion 360 in particular, now there's a manufacturing workspace that has its own computer-aided manufacturing or CAM system allows you to do some slicing, but it's probably more ideal to use your specific slicer, based around your specific tools.

Yeah, yeah.

So our pitch is when you use our materials with our slicer, with our printers, you're going to have a very easy user experience.

You could use a different slicer, you could use different material, but the quick realization is that's very challenging and we've done a lot of that work for you to kind of get you the end part that you need, without incredible amounts of research.

Right, and just moving on to the products that you have available, can you explain the different levels that you have and rough kind of price points so people can understand the idea there?

Sure, so we have starting out as our desktop printer, that's the Funmat HT.

That's a 10 by 10 by 10 build volume single extruder printer that comes in at around $7,500.

Just to clarify 10 by 10, we're talking inches.

Yeah, inches, 260 mil cubed.

Then we'll move up to our Pro 410.

Our Pro 410 is 305 by 305 by 400 inch and that is a dual extruder, which means you get the added benefit of using support materials or multi materials with infill.

But that's a special piece.

Then, when that comes in at about 30 grand, then we'll move up to our fully industrial model, which is the Pro 610.

That is a 20 by 24 by 20 build volume inches that has also a dual extruder, and then that machine will go for about $150,000 with training and installation and kind of a little bit of a white glove experience for that.

Yeah, so that's a serious like industrial machine for professional environments, but it's really the smaller offering that you have that is, for some enthusiasts, attainable and accessible.

Yeah, yeah.

The Funmat HT is actually an incredible printer for like an advanced hobbyist.

They're really able to do a whole bunch of materials, especially in the automotive space.

Any material that you'd want to use, you can run on the Funmat HT.

So let's dig into those materials a little bit.

With the more basic end, at the cheaper side of 3D printing, we're generally talking thermoplastics like ABS, polycarbonate, yeah.

Yeah, so we'll do ABS and ASA kind of at our lower level.

We'll move up into polycarbonates, nylons, carbon fiber filled nylons that's where I really like to spend most of my automotive time is in that realm and then we'll even go further than that, up to really high performance materials, some medical materials.

Those are like peak, packck, paek.

We'll do Peak with a glass fiber or carbon fiber infill as well.

So, yeah, so, starting back at the lower end of that spectrum, with these materials as it builds up the layers, the adhesion between those layers is often the issue we find when it comes to the structural integrity of the part.

I know the parts are good in tension but not so good in sorry.

Good in compression, not so good in tension with the layers, basically separating when loaded like that.

Is that the case with your system?

So for FFF as a technology it's always going to be a challenge.

You're always going to have the weakest direction as that Z tension.

But what we do to try to combat that is we have heated build chambers.

So if you can print in a heated build chamber, the previous layer is still somewhat warm when the new layer goes on top of it.

That actually allows it to kind of chemically bond.

So you get a lot better layer to layer adhesion than you would if you were to print in like an open system without a heated filament chamber.

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Right.

So for just prototyping parts, being able to understand if they'll geometrically work not so much stress testing or anything like that shouldn't be a problem there.

But that's not the case with the.

It doesn't need to be just for prototype parts.

We can be creating the final product.

So I really like to print end-use products in nylon carbon fiber, especially in automotive applications.

You can really get a super high-strength part that's stiff but also impact-resistant.

Right, so we hear as well about 3D printing metals, and that's obviously at the higher end of things.

Does the cost reflect that and are there any issues with that compared to printing thermoplastics?

3D printing metals has come a long way, but there's still some challenges in geometries and dimensional accuracy with printing metals that don't exist in printing thermoplastics.

Dimensional accuracy with printing metals that don't exist in printing thermoplastics, and then when you combine that with the fact that you can print some really high performance thermoplastics that are similarly strong as metals, it really makes the FFF technology an attractive option.

Right.

So with those higher end thermoplastic materials, can you just run through a few of the common ones?

I know you've mentioned them already and what the benefits of them are.

Yeah, so I really like to talk about peak carbon fiber when I'm talking about our highest temperature and highest performance materials.

You can use peak carbon fiber up to 315 degrees Celsius, which is incredibly high, and it has tensile strength similar to aluminum, so you can get 80 to 90 percent of the strength of an aluminum part out of peak carbon fiber part and use it in a high temperature environment as well so in motorsport applications like we're talking about parts that could be in the engine bay for, like, endurance races, where there's really high temperatures that we see over long periods of

time.

Yeah, you could absolutely put peak and peak carbon fiber in an engine bay for extended periods of time and have success with a 3D printed part.

So we often nowadays see like nylon parts for intake manifolds and things like this coming out from the OEM and the factory vehicle, but I can see something like that being a potential alternative, especially as temperatures rise and we want to change the design, of course.

Yeah, absolutely.

Regular OEMs are using nylon six as intake manifolds and that's a use temperature all the way down in, like the 180s or 160s.

So being able to go to 300 315 c with the peak carbon fiber is a huge advantage that's all really interesting because most people think of 3d printing just as something that is for prototyping parts and just figuring it out before.

Maybe you go and get a piece cnc machined out of billet, but it sounds like the we're getting to a point now where you can 3d print some end use situations with materials other than metal as well yeah, absolutely.

Between the nylon carbon fibers, pc and pc blends, as well as the peak and peak carbon fibers, you can really print a functional part that's going to stand up over time.

So just for a quick comparison in the price between the raw material of a basic material like nylon, for example, to something like peak carbon fiber blend, what would we expect to see the price difference there be?

Yeah, so a nylon carbon fiber can be around $100 a spool, whereas a peak carbon fiber is $600 a spool, versus ABS is $20 to $40 a spool.

So significantly more, but still not at the level of like 3D printing a metal or aluminum.

Yeah, 3D printing metals is thousands of dollars per kilogram.

And a spool would probably be able to do like a reasonably sized parts for an automotive application.

Yeah, you could expect to get you know 10 to 12 sizable parts out of a kilogram spool.

If you're talking about for the nylon or peak carbon fiber.

You said six hundred dollars ish for a spool.

Compare that price to like a cnc machined part so that's like really no contest.

the cnc machine parts are like several thousand dollars, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, in, depending on the materials and the time.

One big part that bringing additive into your space has is you're printing stuff on demand, so you don't have lead time.

You could be waiting months for a part to get back from the CNC shop or you could just print it yourself.

So having the flexibility at a relatively low cost.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, that's great to hear.

Thank you for your time.

If anyone wants to learn more about your products, where can they go?

You can go to Intamsyscom I-N-T-A-M-S-Y-S dot com.

Great.

Thank you for your time, cheers Thanks.

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Field Report: Does 3D Printing Have A Place In Motorsport?

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