Close Menu
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    • News
    • Insights
    • Case Studies
    • AM Infocast
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
  • About us
  • Media Kit
  • Contact us
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    1. News
    2. Insights
    3. Case Studies
    4. AM Infocast
    5. View All
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    May 30, 2025
    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone's Reach!

    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone’s Reach!

    May 28, 2025
    Credits: Outokumpu

    Outokumpu launches stainless steel metal powder in additive manufacturing for aerospace and aviation industry applications

    May 22, 2025
    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    May 21, 2025
    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    May 21, 2025
    Formlabs fuse 1+

    How Imaginarium Helped Kaash Studio Scale with the Right 3D Printing Technology

    April 12, 2025
    The Formlabs Fuse 1+ 30W

    Kaash Studio Optimized Service Bureau Operations with Formlabs 3D Printers- Case Study

    January 30, 2025
    Namthaja Unveils Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway

    Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway unveiled by Namthaja

    August 8, 2024
    RusselSmith Material Performance Improvement Whitepaper

    RusselSmith Whitepaper : Improving Material Performance with Microstructural Refinement

    May 9, 2024
    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing

    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing with Bruce Bradshaw

    February 15, 2024
    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    February 9, 2024
    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    March 7, 2023
    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    March 7, 2023
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Subscribe
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
Home » News

Innovative Electric Race Car Part Shows Potential For EBM In Automotive

News By Aditya ChandavarkarOctober 7, 20205 Mins Read
Innovative electric race car part shows potential for EBM in automotive
LinkedIn Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Pinterest Email Copy Link

Over the past three years, the MTC has been working with Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR), the formula student racing team at Oxford Brookes University, on various projects. After a long and successful history of combustion entries in the hotly contested formula student competition, OBR was keen to make the shift to all electric for the 2020 season.

OBR’s complex part produced in Ti-64Al-4V on an Arcam EBM Q20plus. (Photo: Oxford Brookes Racing
OBR’s complex part produced in Ti-64Al-4V on an Arcam EBM Q20plus. (Photo: Oxford Brookes Racing)

Once again, the OBR team turned to NCAM to explore the potential of additively manufacturing a complex and critical part that connects the suspension link, the brake mounts, the wheel, as well as housing the gearbox to the race car’s electric motor.

The part is based around a 4WD in-hub motor configuration with AMK AC servo motors mated to a compact epicyclic gearbox capable of producing over 300 N-m of torque at each wheel. Energy is supplied from a 600V, 6.6 kW-hr battery pack using lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) pouch cells with a peak output of over 130 kW. All to be managed through an open controls platform, ideal for implementing torque vectoring and advanced vehicle controls to unleash the full performance potential of an electric race car.

“Our team was aiming not only to develop a platform to take on the other top Formula Student teams in the world, but to also serve as a test bed for innovation in electric vehicles and controls software. It has also given us an opportunity to be on the forefront of not only performance, but also the industry by gaining both the knowledge and hands-on experience working with electric vehicles,” comments Charles Boileve at Oxford Brookes Racing.

“We’re here to help wherever we can. In fact, the OBR team already had a strong concept and design for additive in mind, which was about 90% there. Our team was able to add our deep additive expertise, offer guidance and add that remaining 10% in order to get the project up and running,” says Ruaridh Mitchinson, product development leader at NCAM.”

“The collaboration case study project enabled demonstration of the full AM end‑to-manufacturing process; from a conception idea to design for AM, manufacture, inspection and post processing machining. The most exciting thing was working closely with MTC Design for Additive and process engineering experts to fully explore the EBM AM process capability, as well as disseminating the knowledge to Oxford Brookes racing team,” adds Mitchinson.

Core to the NCAM team’s expertise is identifying and tailoring the most appropriate technology for a specific application. In the case of the OBR part, electron beam melting (EBM) and a GE Additive Arcam EBM Q20plus were selected from a wide selection of technology at the center’s disposal. Once EBM was selected as the most appropriate, Emmanuel Muzangaza a senior research engineer at NCAM, worked closely with the OBR team on its part.

EBM systems create dimensionally accurate parts quickly and efficiently by utilizing a high-power electron beam. The process takes place in vacuum and at high temperatures, resulting in stress-relieved components with material properties better than cast and comparable to wrought material.

Some of the factors leading to the choice of selecting EBM over other additive technologies for the OBR project included;

  • Design freedom that allows for dense nesting of entire build tank and large, bulky parts without swelling and the ability to easily create little to no supports on parts at low costs
  • High process temperatures mean that parts can be produced with no or minimal residual stress
  • Cost-Effectiveness. EBM enables the use of reactive and crack-prone materials such as Ti-6Al-4V at low costs and the possibility to reuse powder extracted from the system’s Powder Recovery Station (PRS).

2020 Season’s Red Flag

COVID-19 put paid to the FSUK 2020 season. However earlier in the year, over 80 teams from across the UK still participated in a virtual competition. The OBR20 team placed fifth overall in the Statics category and third overall in Virtual Dynamics category, which had they been scored together – as is done at the real-world event – the team would have placed second overall, and runners up for the third year in a row.

“While we hit a bump in the road this year, we continued to better ourselves as engineers – by pushing ahead and looking forward. The electric revolution is still coming, so we will be striving for perfection as a team, and remain committed to our vision of building a multi-year legacy,” adds Boileve.

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK, is focused in accelerating the UK’s industrial growth, developing and proving innovative manufacturing processes and technologies together with creating and embedding future skills.

Driving the commercialization of additive across the UK’s manufacturing sector

Accelerating the adoption of additive manufacturing is a specific focus for the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing Centre (NCAM), part of the MTC. NCAM works with a growing ecosystem of member partners, companies of all sizes and research institutes to challenge the boundaries of additive manufacturing regionally and nationally.

For the past three years, the NCAM’s DRAMA research project has helped build a stronger additive supply chain for the UK’s aerospace sector – an industry which has the largest number of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) companies in Europe.

The automotive sector and motorsports have also been the lifeblood of manufacturing in the West Midlands – one of the UK’s industrial heartlands. For generations the region has been the crux of invention, technology and innovation that has defined motoring and mobility globally.

So, it’s fitting that the NCAM’s Coventry-based team has been using additive technology to continue that innovation legacy and pushing the boundaries of automotive engineering with one of the UK’s leading formula student racing teams.

 

Aditya Chandavarkar
Aditya Chandavarkar
Website
Aditya Chandavarkar is a established entrepreneur with business interests in manufacturing, innovative technology, training and consulting. Among other activities he the Co-Founder of Indian 3D Printing Network and is a subject matter expert on 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing with good grasp of Additive Manufacturing trends in the Region including India, APAC, Middleeast and Africa.
3d printing Electric Cars EV Motorsports MTC
Aditya Chandavarkar
  • Website

Aditya Chandavarkar is a established entrepreneur with business interests in manufacturing, innovative technology, training and consulting. Among other activities he the Co-Founder of Indian 3D Printing Network and is a subject matter expert on 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing with good grasp of Additive Manufacturing trends in the Region including India, APAC, Middleeast and Africa.

LATEST FROM AM
Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d News

Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

June 5, 20252 Mins Read
New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin Uncategorized

New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

June 5, 20251 Min Read
Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen News

Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

June 3, 20253 Mins Read

CONNECT WITH US

  • 126 A, Dhuruwadi, A. V. Nagvekar Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400025
  • [email protected]
  • +91 022 24306319
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

Newsletter

Subscribe to the AM Chronicle mailer to receive latest tech updates and insights from global industry experts.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Quick Links

  • News
  • Insights
  • Case Studies
  • AM Training
  • AM Infocast
  • AM Magazine
  • Events

Media

  • Advertise with us
  • Sponsored Articles
  • Media Kit

Events

  • AM Conclave 2025
    24-25 September 2025 | ADNEC, Abu Dhabi
  • AMTECH 2025
    3-4 December 2025 | KTPO, Whitefield, Bengaluru
CNT Expositions & Services LLP
© 2025 CNT Expositions & Services LLP.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.



0 / 75