3D printed gear change lever with PEEK.
PEEK application
Scientific research club of AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow, which deals with the construction of racing cars of Formula Student class, decided to use of 3D printing technology to make the race car elements, tooling, and prototypes of end-use parts with high-performance polymers such as PEEK.
3D print
Cooling system parts, aerodynamic system parts, a gear change lever.
Use
Highly durable parts of low weight with high-performance materials such as PEEK.
Goals
1. Replacement of the parts originally made of metal alloys with parts made of PEEK
Manufacturing the metal parts have been done by using conventional technologies: machining or casting.
Using 3D printing in race car parts production allowed to shorten the final part implementation time and reduce its production cost.
2. Race car weight reduction
On race tracks, each additional kilogram or even gram decreases the power-to-weight ratio of the race car, which results in worse performance. Use of high-performance polymers for race car parts production allowed to reduce the race car weight. Parts made of PEEK are over 2 times lighter than the parts of the same volume made of aluminum alloys and even 6 times lighter than parts made of steel or cast steel, whilst retaining the mechanical properties sufficient for the application.
Products we used
3D model in 3DGence SLICER 4.0 – Slicing software PEEK parts were made on the industrial 3D printer – 3DGence INDUSTRY F340.
source: 3DGence
