Interview first published in the March/April 2022 issue of 3D ADEPT Mag. Roles, machine counts and projects reflect that Formula One season.
2022 rings in a new era for Formula 1: cars are designed with new regulations in mind – which means further complexities for racing teams pursuing speed and reliability. While these regulations are engaging in various ways for racing engineering teams, it remains fascinating to watch the extreme applications in which newly created parts are being applied. 3D ADEPT Media sat down with Christoph Hansen, COO of Sauber Technologies, to discuss the additive production of these critical applications, and how these applications help Sauber Group build a technological expertise worthy to be explored beyond motorsports.
Sauber built its motorsport activities over several decades. In the context of this interview, its Alfa Romeo partnership, established in 2018, accompanied its entry as Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN in 2021 and Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN in 2022. Additive manufacturing supports both development and production; Christoph Hansen describes the team’s equipment below.
“We have the complete package when it comes to additive manufacturing capabilities: 6 large SLS 3D printers, 7 SLA machines, 4 other metal 3D printers which are fully automated and therefore very productive. On top of this, we have an R&D department for materials development and validation. The production environment also integrates special units that help us make the right decisions when AM is leveraged. These units are completed by advanced heat treatment technologies such as Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) which are for instance, very useful for Titanium 3D printed components, etc. We operate this entire package under the umbrella of Sauber Group”, Hansen states from the outset.
However, if the company seems to have a powerful machinery today, it should be noted they didn’t start investing in AM this way. As our guest told 3D ADEPT Media, Sauber Group started leveraging AM in the 1990s, but at this time, they were sourcing parts from an external supplier. “In 2007, we installed our first machine. It was an SLA 3D printer. And since then, we constantly increase our production capacity with other AM technologies. It’s only in 2016 that we decided to upgrade this production capacity with metal 3D printing which gave a huge boost to our business”, he adds.
Having a complete portfolio of AM & related processes is one thing, being able to make the most out of it is even better – especially in an industry where rules are ever changing.
New regulations in F1 and AM
The 2022 season opened on 20 March at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu driving for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN.
At the time of the interview, Hansen described the team’s relief after months of preparation. The official race results record Bottas in sixth place and Zhou in tenth. Both drivers scored: eight points for Bottas and one for Zhou, giving the team nine points.
“The pressure is off now. The past weeks were tough as we needed to get the car ready. A lot of emergency parts and other development parts needed to be done for the race car itself”, Sauber Technologies’ COO comments.
The 2022 rules required engineers to rethink the car’s aerodynamic design.
The C42 was the team’s first car for this regulatory cycle, with a ground-effect floor, revised aerodynamics and 18-inch wheels. The rules aimed to enable closer racing. According to Hansen, AM retained its role in aerodynamic development and contributed to more critical applications on the car.
“Speaking of Formula One in general, the main area where the use of AM is required is aero development – the wind tunnel models. The body of the wind tunnel models is essentially polymer parts and aluminium parts for the front and rear wings. This allows us to have very short iteration cycles, so we can develop the car very quickly. So the turnaround time from idea to design to production to testing is very short. In the early 1990s, when we started Formula 1, we used conventional manufactured components and it took weeks to get the expected results. With AM, the lead time has been reduced to a few days,” Hansen explains. “AM is also very useful for making components for the race car. These components include very sophisticated structural components for the chassis but also simple non-structural electronics boxes and equipment.”
Racing with Additive Manufacturing: the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN race car C42
Hansen said the Sauber team has additively manufactured between 300 and 400 parts for the C42. Around 150 parts out of this number have been 3D printed in metal.
The company representative did not elaborate on the exact areas where AM is used, but noted that these parts include safety-relevant structural parts where quality requires a high standard.
“For every part produced, it is of utmost importance that the quality meets the high requirements. If this is not the case, it could have serious consequences for the pilot. To ensure this, we use technologies such as CT scans, so defects can be excluded. We also use hot isostatic presses to achieve the material properties. (etc.) All this ensures our technological edge.”, the expert outlines.
These checks support part qualification. Detection capability depends on geometry, material, resolution and acceptance criteria; it is not a general guarantee that every possible defect is absent.
The chassis, which houses the driver and to which all components, assemblies and systems are attached, is usually made of a lightweight but very rigid honeycomb sandwich structure. Especially the inserts in the chassis – safety-critical class A parts – locally reinforce the composite sandwich panel. Depending on the function and load level, different materials can be used for the inserts, from carbon and aluminium to high-strength titanium for the Sauber C41 F1 racecar for instance, these Class A safety critical parts were produced with the Additive Industries MetalFAB1 system – using titanium (Ti6Al4V Gd 23) – to cope with the high fatigue and alternating loads experienced.
Furthermore, using 3D modeling and NonLinear Finite Element Analysis, Alfa Romeo also managed to iteratively reduce the weight of the 110 x 100 x 130mm inserts to just 580 grams, introducing undercut features into its design that weren’t constrained by the need to leave access for tooling.
The Additive Industries chassis-insert case study describes this application family. The dimensions and mass above concern the example in this feature, not every insert in a racing car.
The detailed production route for the C42 parts was not disclosed during this interview. The C41 example therefore does not establish that all C42 parts followed the same process.
Sauber’s partnership with Additive Industries began in 2017. At the time of the 2022 interview, Sauber reported producing more than 50,000 metal laser powder bed fusion parts across industries.
When asked why the focus on metal laser PBF when we know that not only weight is a decisive factor in racing car components, but it can also be obtained via other AM processes like composites AM, Hansen states:
“Composites 3D printing is still a compromise compared to the traditional composites materials. Even though we can achieve lightweight parts with this manufacturing process, having parts which are made up of Titanium or Scalmalloy® does not mean that the part is heavy. On the contrary, by using these materials, we can really achieve the lightest parts. These parts are usually replacing their counterparts we used to manufacture using conventional manufacturing processes. By comparing their weight with the one of their counterparts, we realize that we achieve lighter results with AM.”
Hansen’s answer steers the conversation towards AM materials. For SLS technology, Sauber uses its own HiPAC, a carbon-filled polyamide 12, while standard materials are used for stereolithography.
Hansen also names aluminium, stainless steel and Scalmalloy®. For Scalmalloy®, APWORKS reports 520 MPa tensile strength and 480 MPa yield strength. These supplier values must be considered alongside processing, treatment and test conditions; they do not establish universal superiority over all aluminium alloys.
In the manufacturing value chain, it is no secret that materials are often the key item that hinders the scalability of AM applications hence the increasing development and qualification of new materials in the industry. In this case, although Titanium and Scalmalloy® are the main materials used for producing metal laser PBF printed parts of the C42, it’s interesting to note that Hansen is not in a hurry to explore new AM materials:
“I am happy with what we have right now. With the variety of materials, the complexity when it comes to achieving the required properties and quality, exploring other materials will only increase that complexity and will make it even more complex to maintain and ensure the mechanical properties. It’s also for these reasons that we work with a defined and limited portfolio of AM technologies as we need to make sure we maintain the quality we have right now. Sometimes, less is more.”
The next race?
In 2022, Sauber presented Sauber Technologies to develop its work for customers outside motorsport. The group also highlighted its Camozzi partnership.
Sauber Technologies sees the incorporation of Sauber Engineering and Sauber Aerodynamics in a bid to strengthen services and the offer of know-how for customers across a wide range of industries. Sauber Technologies, part of the Sauber Group and based in Hinwil, Switzerland, will be fully focused on third-party business, providing a holistic service for complex engineering problems, from the idea stage to the finished products.
Hansen explains that the company aims to apply its motorsport experience to projects spanning the initial idea, design, manufacturing and finishing.
“We have seen some of the practical applications of our expertise in recent months and we are excited about the new opportunities that await us in the future. We bring a cross-discipline approach to the table, allowing our customers to access processes and technologies in novel ways and bringing success stories from other fields into theirs. It’s a unique approach in this region and we’re ready to help our customers grow with our innovative mindset”, he concludes.
This interview was first published in the March/April 2022 issue of 3D ADEPT Mag.
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