It’s always exciting when a large build comes up and we get to watch the parts come to life!
Realize enjoys working with students that are in the process of doing amazing things. We are a sponsor of the Penn State Formula SAE team and helped them out with a new intake. We talked with George Mishkin, Team Captain, about how they are using 3D Printing and additive manufacturing to gain an advantage over the competition.
Realize: Tell us about your team and how we started working together.
George: Penn State Formula SAE is a student run design team with the task of designing and prototyping a formula style racecar for the annual Formula SAE competition. At this competition, held at Michigan International Speedway, teams from all over the world are judged in both static and dynamic events including: cost of production, ergonomics, an investment presentation, acceleration, autocross time, and a grueling endurance race. The competition provides students with an opportunity to apply their engineering, organization, and communication skills in an industry-like setting. Every year, the team 3D prints a new intake design and that is how the relationship started between Realize and the team.
How did you use Realize and 3D Printing to help with your car?
Every year, the team needs to design a new intake for the car. The 3D printers the team uses in house is no where near as technical as the team would like them to be because we need to print an intake that is lightweight and durable. We find that Realize and their 3D printers supply us with our needs.
How do you think you will use additive manufacturing in the future and are there any new directions or capabilities you would like to see in the industry?
In the future, I feel I will use additive manufacturing as a means to test new prototypes. In the automotive industry, new components are being invented all the time. It is one thing to see this new component on screen, but it is another to see it being used. Additive manufacturing will allow me to print my new component and test right away to see if it works in the total design. This way, I can make changes right away instead of waiting for mold to be created first, saving me time along with money. I would like to see more components mass produced using additive manufacturing. The team makes our uprights by machining aluminum in a CNC machine. This process takes weeks to make just one upright. If they were to be done using additive manufacturing, the uprights would only take days. I feel industry needs to shift mass produced parts over to additive manufacturing.
What were the biggest challenges with creating the parts we did for you?
The biggest challenges with creating our parts is making sure the intake is positioned correctly to the headers on the engine along with the intake being durable. The team has seen in the past where the throttle body breaks the neck of the intake due to the weight of the throttle body. We have also seen the intake broken due to removing it from the engine. The team has to maintain a balance between durability and lightness of the intake and it is always a struggle.
What is something that you personally would like to have 3D Printed?
I would love to have a 3D printed corvette. It has been my favorite car ever since I was a young boy and it still is today. I could stare at one all day.
At Realize we get very excited when an interesting project comes through our doors. One recent prototype we worked on is for a new product that is looking to revolutionalize the concept of locking your bike! We talked with the creator and founder of Linka Mohamed Mohamed.
Realize: Tell us about your product.
Mohamed: As I’m an avid everyday cyclist, I realized I needed more security and peace of mind for my bike and regardless of how bulky and expensive other locks were, I needed something that told me if something was wrong so I can address it immediately. If you wait a few hours, it’s too late. The recovery rate for bikes in the U.S. is less than 2%. After some research and asking many people from various environments, everyone seemed to have the same concerns. So LINKA was born! LINKA mounts to your bike in 5 minutes and stays there so you’re always ready to lock up. With a built-in siren and an accelerometer, LINKA can tell when your bike is in danger and will notify your smart phone. Beyond that, LINKA will auto-unlock as you approach making it quicker and easier than ever to ride away.
How did you use Realize and 3D Printing to help with your project?
We utilized Realize’s ability to get us finished looking SLA parts to help us with a fit and finish of our end production product. We also utilized the RTV mold process to make rubber gaskets in various colors. This really allowed us to have high quality photos for our shoots.
How do you think you will use additive manufacturing in the future and are there any new directions or capabilities you would like to see in the industry?
I wish there was a way to find quick turn solutions to simulate machined parts in aluminum and steel. Local shops have long lead times and the cost is quite high. We will continue to utilize existing additive manufacturing tools to get really quick relatively inexpensive prototypes made.
What were the biggest challenges with creating the Bike lock?
Biggest challenge for us is multi-faceted. Balancing bluetooth range combined with designing something with low-power consumption. From a mechanical side, tolerances need to be really well captured as a non-functioning bike lock provides more issues than say a non-functional bike light.
With such a cool product coming out is there a follow up idea you have ready to go?
We currently have many products in our roadmap and can’t wait to introduce them all once the time is right!
LINKA is currently available on pre-order for $99 with an expected ship date of January 2016. Find our more through our Kickstarter campaign here
Every month at Realize we look for a featured item to create using 3D printing and for June we have selected Tyrannosaurus rex. Commonly referred to as T. rex, it’s one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs that ever lived. We selected this in honor of the new Jurassic World film that was just released.
The new dinosaur park movie just crushed all expectations, Universal’s Jurassic World soared to a record $204.6 million debut in North America and $511.8 million globally. Globally, the movie posted the largest weekend bow in history, eclipsing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 ($483.2 million) and becoming the first film to ever cross $500 million in one weekend.*
Realize, Inc. 3D Printed item of the month for June: T. rex
Here is our 3D Printed T. rex! We used Accura 25 resin and it was created in our iPro machine. Don’t forget, there was a scene is Jurassic Park 3 that referenced a “Rapid Prototyper!” It was a pretty big deal when 3D printing/rapid prototyping was mentioned in Jurassic Park III back in 2001. In the film, a group of paleontologists re-create a velociraptor’s resonating chamber using a 3D printer.
The 3D Printed T. rex in honor of Jurassic World release. Realize, Inc.
(*Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
Realize helped out the University of Florida FSAE team with an intake for their car. It’s always exciting to see how the parts that we create perform out in the world. The intake and car recently ran in all the events in the FSAE 2015 Michigan Competition.
We talked with Andrew Cheung from the team about the competitions and the teams future goals.
“We placed 3rd overall, 1st in Acceleration, 2nd in Endurance, 5th in Business, 2nd in the Design Event, and 1st in FEV Powertrain Development. Moving forward, the overall goals for the team is to transfer knowledge, keep a top 5 finish, and have an even larger focus on powertrain development. We’ve recently bought a dynamometer to provide more validation in our designs. For the intake specifically, we are going to take what we learned from this intake and create a more refined version of it and would love to use your services again. “
-Andrew Cheung, CFD Lead , Formula Team
Congrats and Realize wishes you well on achieving your team goals!
3D Printing/Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing