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Keels:
3D printing helps push Land Rover yacht racing forward

Rapid prototyping ability allows British yacht racing team to refine custom parts, reduce costs.

Land Rover Ben Ainsile Racing (BAR) is no stranger to cutting-edge technologies. The British yacht racing team, formed by four-time Olympic gold medalist and America's Cup winner Sir Ben Ainsile, uses artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and -- most recently -- additive manufacturing (3D printing) to gain competitive advantages.

These technologies have been incorporated into daily use at Land Rover BAR by the team's Technical Innovation Group (TIG). Renishaw, a global metrology company that also manufactures metal additive manufacturing machines, is a TIG partner. The partnership has allowed the team's engineers to design and test precision custom parts quickly and cost effectively in the shop -- and give it an edge on the water.

"We use 3D printing at three different levels within the team, says TIG's project manager, George Sykes of PA Consulting. "The simplest level is as a prototyping and visualization tool. We manufacture a large number of custom parts, and 3D printing allows us to make full-size prototypes in-house before we commit to a design."

"The prototyping process is really useful when we are trying to develop a new idea," says Land Rover BAR's chief technology officer, Andy Claughton. "It allows us to get our hands on it, put it in place on the boat, or link it up with other parts of the system and see potential issues and refine the design before we commit to the production of the final piece."

Using addtive manufacturing, the weight of a new manifold design was reduced by 60 percent, with an increase in performance efficiency of better than 20 percent, for the Land Rover BAR yacht racing team.

 

 

 

 

The team has its own, fully equipped traditional machine shop, as well as an extensive additive manufacturing facility. Between them, these facilities can make almost anything, but if the final part can be 3D printed, then that is the option used, because typically the cost can be significantly reduced.

"An example is the end cap for the boat's bowsprit," says Sykes. "This is a complex shape, designed to reduce the aerodynamic drag. It was ideal for 3D printing, because there was no load involved and a single item was required. In years gone by, this would have been built in carbon fiber to the finish specs and standards of a piece of custom furniture, and at great expense due to the time and skill of those involved. Now, once the design has been developed, it can be produced in a handful of hours at a much lower cost."

With Renishaw's help, the Land Rover BAR team is taking additive manufacturing even further. "The top level of our 3D-printing program is the metal additive manufacturing supplied by Renishaw," says Sykes. "The manufacture of custom parts in metal is the cutting edge of this technology."

The components are made from paper-thin layers (typically 0.05 mm) of fine metallic powder. The system works in an argon inert atmosphere, similar to that inside a light bulb; heat can be applied to melt the metal powder without it burning or reacting with oxygen or impurities found in air. The heat is applied using a laser beam, directed using software-controlled mirrors, and focused to accurately weld the areas required to create the part.

A selection of parts made from 3D metal printing for the Land Rover BAR team.

 

 

One of the earliest components the Land Rover BAR team created using this technology was a custom sheave case for the pulley in the daggerboard lift line. "There was a high compressive load involved, and it needed good resistance to wear, so metal was the ideal choice," says Sykes. "All high-strength metals have a higher density (weight per volume) than carbon fiber, so to keep weight down the final design was hollow. It would have been very difficult to make this part any other way than additive manufacturing."

"The potential of additive manufacturing in terms of saving weight and improving efficiency is tremendous," says Claughton. "For example, we took a long, hard look at our hydraulics system. Before 3D printing came along, all the parts in this system would have been manufactured by taking metal away from a solid block. The shapes that you can create with this method are limited, so the design is limited and so too is the efficiency. "Hydraulic fluid doesn't take kindly to going around hard corners, for instance, and there is a loss of power when it has to do so. With traditional techniques, this might be the only way you can manufacture the part, but with additive manufacturing you can build it with smooth, rounded corners that significantly improve efficiency in the fluid transfers involved.

"In addition to the improvements in efficiency, we can now build it much more lightly, as we are only adding material specifically where it is needed. In the past, the geometry of manufacture on a lathe or other cutting tool meant that some material couldn't be removed, and we would have to carry around the excess weight. No longer."

Nose cone made for the Land Rover BAR team using additive manufacturing.

 

 

Renishaw has manufactured several parts for the hydraulics, and while the team is reluctant to reveal too much design detail, it has said that weight in a new AM manifold design was reduced by 60 percent, with an increase in performance efficiency of better than 20 percent.

For Renishaw the project is a win too. David Ewing, product marketing engineer at Renishaw's Additive Manufacturing Products Division, says, "Our involvement with Land Rover BAR is also helping to raise the bar in additive manufacturing. It's a complex manufacturing option, and there are considerations both in component design and process expertise. The best applications are ones that use the minimum amount of material to achieve the design requirements, offer a functional benefit in service, and have been designed with the manufacturing method in mind. Our work on hydraulic parts for the team is a perfect example."

"This is one technology that's here to stay, and its role within our build processes will only increase in the future," says Claughton.

For further information on Renishaw metal additive manufacturing, please go to www.renishaw.com/additive.

For more information on Land Rover BAR Technical Innovation Group, please go to http://land-rover-bar.americascup.com/en/technical-innovation-group.html.

Source: Renishaw

Published June 2017

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