Stratasys’ carbon fiber printers give Team Penske the edge in NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA

Stratasys is furthering its collaboration with Team Penske, a competitive motorsports team that competes in NASCAR, IndyCar and three other racing series. The technical partnership was originally formed in February 2017.

Team Penske says it is expanding its use of additive manufacturing to gain a competitive edge in the NASCAR, INDYCAR and IMSA circuits, and is turning to Stratasys’ FDM 3D printers to advance car testing, prototypes and production parts using materials like Carbon Fiber-filled Nylon 12.

“While drivers are focused on outperforming one another during racing season, the real competition starts weeks before with design and development in the shop,” said Matt Gimbel, Team Penske Production Manager. “The power to deploy 3D printing early in the process gives Team Penske a tremendous advantage in the production of better, stronger and more aerodynamic race car parts.”

Team Penske has turned to additive manufacturing processes for a range of tasks, including the development of wind tunnels, composite tooling, jigs and fixtures, engineering prototypes and race car components. Its most recent 3D printing endeavour involved creating lightweight mirror housings with Stratasys’ Carbon Fiber printing technology.

That Carbon Fiber technology can be found in the $70,000 Fortus 380mc Carbon Fiber Edition printer, which Stratasys says is suited for applications in the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as for medical purposes such as orthosis and prosthesis development.

“While others talk about additive manufacturing as a future vision, Stratasys is demonstrating adoption into mainstream production environments everyday,” said a Stratasys spokesperson. “We’re delivering true industrial manufacturing solutions with unmatched levels of repeatability, reliability and performance required for tooling and final part production. And this is being validated across industries with market leaders like Penske, Lockheed Martin, Audi and GKN Aerospace.”

Stratasys is currently demonstrating the Fortus 380mc Carbon Fiber Edition and Stratasys F900 Production 3D Printer, both of which are capable of printing with Nylon 12 Carbon Fiber material, at IMTS 2018.