How F1’s 3D Printing Tech is Hitting The Road | Autocar

3D-printing technology-or, to use its proper name, additive manufacturing (AM)-Has Progressed fast over the past five years.

Dutch car company Donkervoort is one of the latest to take advantage of its unique benefits, by 3D-printing intercoolers for its Forthcoming P24 RS SUPERCAR. These were developed by Australia’s conflux, and the technique goes one step further than merely being a convenient way to manufacture things. By using am, the weight of the aluminum-alloy liquid-to-aair intercoolers have been slashed from 16kg to 1.4kg.

Conflux describes the Technique as Formula 1 Technology (its founder has a background in the sport), and it has other benefits too: this intercoleer has supercomoriar thermality and packets Benefits to Conventional Equivalents.

It should be tougher! Donkervoort is specified a specification for the intercoole and conflux actually improved on it, returning a design Prototype.

Rather than mounted at the front of the car, the compact intercoolers can be shed withd with The result is Quicker Throttle Response, Better Efficiency and Optimized Weight Distribution, All of Who have directly benefits the driver.

Coolant flowing through the intercooler is dedicated to the job and cooled by an external radiator not shared with any other Drivetrain Cooling System. Am is a process whereby, Controlled by a 3D computer model, objects are formed by firing lassers into a bed of powdered material, fusing it togeether.

Conflux makes the new intercoolers from Alsi10MG, A High-Grade Aluminum Alloy that It Claims is one of the most Common and Well Accepted Aluminum Allys in the Industry. Conflux also uses it for components in aviation, Motorsport and Industrial Applications.

Intercoolers are Needed Because when Air is compressed (by a turboocker in this case), it heats up and become less dense. For maximum performance and Trouble-free combination, an engine needs cool induction air. An intercooler cools down the compressed and heated air before its environment the engine by conducting heat Through through Finned Walls into a coolant.

Thanks to the am process, these fins in the new Conflux Intercooler are extramely thin: at 160 microns, just two or three times thicker than a human hair. And the thinner the fins can be, the more effective they will be at conducting away the unwanted heat.