We have undertaken a number of automotive sector projects. Here are brief summaries from a selection of these.
Light-weighting a production sports car
The team is involved in a current project to optimise and lightweight a premium, high performance road vehicle. This involves analysis of the car to identify areas of potential weight savings.
Once components have been identified they are 3D scanned and the scan data converted to a suitable format for CAD. The design engineers then analysed the data and where necessary optimised the design of the new components.
Finite element analysis (FEA) and other tests are carried out on the redesigned components to ensure that they retain the required strength and other attributes needed. Then PES manage the manufacture of the new parts. The new parts are typically made of titanium or carbon fibre composites; replacing heavier original metal and plastic components.
Bio-Composite Automotive Bodywork Panels
Our design engineers worked with partners on a research project to evaluate the potential use of bio-composite materials in the production of future automotive vehicle bodywork panels.
The project used a partially bio-based composite to create large Porsche and Subaru components. They were made from an epoxy-based composite. 30% of the epoxy resin was replaced with cashew nut shell liquid, while the fibre used was flax.
Our engineers scanned the parts with our 3D optical scanner and the resulting scan data was converted to CAD. The engineers then used their experience of composites to optimise the design of the components in the bio-composite materials.
The bio-composite Porsche boot lid was 2mm thick and weighed 6kg less than the 1mm thick steel original. The added thickness of the bio-composite part also ensuring an improved stiffness than the original.
Restoring Classic Ferrari cars
We were approached to help in the restoration of two classic 1950’s Ferrari cars.
The first was a 1957 Testarossa GTO which required a new chassis to be manufactured. The PES engineers took the supplied scan data and CAD models of the chassis were modelled to ‘design intent’.