Posted on

From design to reality: Windform® Composite Materials to go beyond 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing is evolving very quickly, powering the development of innovative, lightweight applications.

Energica Ego running prototype with several 3D printed parts in Windform® composite materials (starting point) and Energica Ego electric motorcycle homologated for street use (present day)

This growth has a major reason: advances in additive materials. According to many 2019 reports, the number of materials available for AM has more than doubled in the past five years, and the rules of manufacturing have been rewritten as the technical capabilities of these polymers met up with the opportunities that 3D printing offers in term of product development and low-volume parts production. Materials for professional 3D printing are completely changing traditional production schemes.

Amongst the most known and long-running high performance materials on market, there are Windform® TOP LINE range of Carbon or Glass fiber reinforced composite materials created by Italy-based CRP Technology.

Windform® TOP LINE composite materials are for selective laser sintering (SLS), an additive manufacturing technique that uses a laser as the power source to sinter powdered material from a 3D model.

Windform® TOP LINE are designed to offer full range of options, possibilities and features, from excellent thermal properties to resistance to high temperature, from high stiffness and excellent strength to reduced weight, just to name a few.

Eva EsseEsse9 3D printed terminal cover in Glass-fiber filled composite material Windform® LX 3.0 and 3D printed chain slider in Glass-fiber filled composite material Windform® GT

Examples concerning the wide range of uses of high performance composite materials and professional 3D printing, comes from Energica Motor Company, first Italian manufacturer of super-sport electric motorcycles and single manufacturer for FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup.

Long-term technological partnership with CRP Technology enabled Energica to be on the market quickly, fueling innovation, accelerating the prototyping and product development phase.

All Energica motorcycles models currently on the market were created and engineered through the support of CRP Technology: its innovative and avant-garde solutions in the field of additive manufacturing technology have made Energica a unique model throughout the world.

“We relied on CRP Technology and their 3D printing department as they have the right composite material to meet every demand, especially for a project as complex as Energica electric motorcycles. I’m not referring to an ordinary motorcycle, but a high-voltage, high power electric motorcycle that has special needs.  CRP Technology proved to be the right partner to support customers in their challenge,” explains Energica Motor Company CTO, Giampiero Testoni.

Eva EsseEsse9 3D printed water pump support realized in Windform® RL thermoplastic elastomer material for 3D printing

From the R&D and testing phases to pre-series, Energica motorcycles have been mounting many functional components 3D printed by CRP Technology.

Let’s consider the first model ever, Energica Ego which is “the most powerful and sophisticated electric motorcycle homologated for street use anywhere in the world” (from Energica website).

In the first prototype phase, several components of Energica Ego motorcycle such as aerodynamic parts, fairings, front and rear fenders, tail, were made by CRP Technology via professional 3D printing using Windform® XT 2.0 Carbon-fiber filled composite material from CRP Technology’s TOP-LINE range of high performance materials.

Dashboard support, rear mirrors and front fairing were made in Windform® SP Carbon fiber filled composite material.

Windform® TOP-LINE are production-grade materials. Their use is not limited to the prototype phase, but also short production runs. Let’s see some examples: Windform® XT 2.0 is nowadays used to produce the frontlight cover on the Energica Ego motorcycles currently on the market.

Eva EsseEsse9 3D printed terminal cover and 3D printed sprocket cover both in Glass-fiber filled composite material Windform® LX 3.0

This component isn’t the only one that CRP Technology is manufacturing for the Energica motorcycles that get to the world market: CRP Technology produces the electric motor terminal cover (for Energica Ego, Energica Eva EsseEsse9 motorcycles), turn signal indicators, sprocket cover (both for Energica Ego, Energica Eva EsseEsse9). These components are manufactured via selective laser sintering using Windform® LX 3.0 Glass-fiber filled composite TOP-LINE material.

The chain slider (for both Energica Ego, Energica Eva EsseEsse9) is manufactured by CRP Technology using the other Glass-fiber filled composite material from the TOP-LINE family: Windform® GT.

The water pump-support (for Energica Ego, Energica Eva EsseEsse9 motorcycles) is manufactured by CRP Technology in Windform® RL thermoplastic elastomer material for SLS.

CRP Technology partnered with Energica even on the development and construction of Ego Corsa, Energica’s electric racebike for the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup which is derived from the street-legal motorcycle Energica Ego.

Energica Ego running prototype drives on the road: 3D printed dashboard support, rear mirrors, front fairings manufactured in Carbon fiber filled composite material Windform® SP

A first preview: Some recent components inside the Ego Corsa’s new battery are 3D printed using Windform® FR2, the newest and disruptive material from the Windform® TOP-LINE range. It is the first composite material for 3D printing which is Glass fiber-filled and flame retardant, FAR 25.853 and UL94 HB compliant.

The massive use of high quality 3D printing allows to fine tune the style (e.g. fairing) and, at the same time, allows to carry out specific test rides on the road.

This prerogative is not limited to the Automotive and Motorsports industry, as it is viable in all advanced sectors.

Learn more in CRP Technology’s white paper, available for download here.

The post From design to reality: Windform® Composite Materials to go beyond 3D Printing appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

3D Printing News Briefs: September 29, 2018

We’ve got some 3D printing event news to share with you in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, along with some business news and a story about a cool 3D printed container. At the TCT Show this week, Additive Industries announced a partnership with Laser Lines, and DEVELOP3D Magazine will soon celebrate product design and metal 3D printing at a live event. CRP Technology has created an updated 3D printed fairing for the Energica Ego Corsa superbike, and employees at the GE Additive Customer Experience Center in Munich made a 3D printed beer krug just in time for Oktoberest.

Additive Industries Partnering with Laser Lines

L-R: Mark Beard, General Manager UK, Additive Industries; Mark Tyrtania, Sales Director, Laser Lines; Daan Kersten, CEO, Additive Industries; and Phil Craxford, Sales Manager, Laser Lines

At the opening of the TCT Show, which took place in Birmingham earlier this week, Additive Industries announced a new partnership with Laser Lines Ltd. in order to speed up its 3D printing presence in the UK and Ireland. Laser Lines is a UK supplier of 3D printers, 3D scanning equipment, lasers, and related accessories, and will work together with Additive Industries to help grow the maturing market in the UK and Ireland for industrial 3D printers. Laser Lines will support Additive Industries in its work to further develop the industrial market for various applications in the aerospace, automotive, machine building, and medical sectors.

“With the recently announced expansion to the UK with a dedicated Process & Application Development Centre, we already acknowledge that the UK & Ireland is an important market that provides great opportunities for industrial companies to enter into industrial metal additive manufacturing,” said Daan Kersten, the CEO of Additive Industries. “With Laser Lines Ltd we add an experienced partner to our fast growing worldwide network that will work with us to identify and manage these opportunities that will contribute to our execution of our accelerated growth.”

DEVELOP3D Magazine Holding Live Event

Each year, DEVELOP3D, a monthly print and digital design journal, holds a live US event all about product design. This year’s DEVELOP3D Live event will be held this coming Tuesday, October 2nd, from 8 am – 6:30 pm at Boston University.

“We have some really fascinating folks coming to celebrate product design in the 21st Century,” Martyn Day from X3D Media, which runs DEVELOP3D, told 3DPrint.com. “We are especially pleased to have Ti Chang from Crave, Tatjana Dzambazova from new metals 3D printing company Velo3D and Olympian, Jon Owen from Team USA Luge.

“Our day is split with MainStage presentations from designers and the industry, together with a track dedicated to Additive Manufacturing, with all the latest in metals 3D printing.”

Tickets are just $50, and include full access to the conference and all 30 exhibitors, plus refreshments, lunch, and drinks at a social mixer. There will be 20 speakers presenting in two separate streams, and topics include CAD, topology optimization, 3D printing, virtual reality, and product development.

3D Printed Fairing for Ego Corsa

Together, Italy-based CRP Group and its subsidiary Energica have been using 3D printing and Windform materials to develop components for electric motorcycles and superbikes for a few years now. In April, the Ego Corsa electric motorcycle completed its third demo lap, and at the last series of road tests before the first edition of the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, the 2019 2019 Ego Corsa prototype hit the track with a new 3D printed fairing, manufacturing by CRP Technology with its laser sintering technology and Windform XT 2.0 Carbon-fiber reinforced composite material. The 3D printed fairing update has improved the Ego Corsa’s aerodynamics.

“We have had the fairing available in short time. Thanks to the professional 3D printing and CRP Technology’s Windform composite materials, it is possible to modify motorcycle components – even large ones – from one race to the next ones, in order to test different solutions directly on the track,” said the Energica technical staff.

“This fairing is not only more aerodynamic, but it also has a smaller frontal and lateral section. These improvements led to achieve increase in terms of performance and they led to achieve greater manageability in fast corners.

“The Windform XT 2.0 has once again proved to be a high performance composite material. We are very happy how the 3D printed new fairing behaved during the tests.”

GE Additive 3D Prints Metal Beer Stein

Even though the month of October doesn’t start for another few days, Oktoberfest itself officially kicked off last Saturday in Germany. In order to celebrate the occasion, the AddWorks team at the GE Additive Customer Experience Center in Munich, which opened last winter, decided to take another look at the traditional glass beer krug; what we’d call a pitcher or stein in the US.

The unfortunate thing about glass is that it breaks. Obviously, if you’ve enjoyed too much beer at an event like Oktoberfest, the likelihood of breaking your glass drink container goes way up. So AddWorks decided to create a new prototype beer krug, but instead of using glass, they 3D printed it using a combination of stainless steel and titanium…and the result is pretty impressive.

Take a look at the video below, which stars the head of the Munich CEC (Matthew Beaumont), to see the whole process:

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Faceboook comments below.