Harley Davidson Manufacturing facility Racing staff’s success on the racetrack is being propelled by additive manufacturing, in keeping with Protolabs.
The staff is claimed to be counting on the digital manufacturing firm to rapidly implement new half designs that enhance pace and efficiency, turning learnings from races into new prototypes and closing components within the house of week.
Harley Davidson manufacturing unit staff racing boss Jason Kehl commented, “For us to achieve success we have to reply quickly to what we’re studying on the racetrack and we want a associate that may carry these concepts to life in just some days. As a digital producer, Protolabs permits us to make these weekly incremental enhancements that result in season-long success.”
The expertise is claimed to be incomes the staff extra podium finishes within the King of the Bagger collection of bike racing, which sees touring bikes from Harley-Davidson and Indian tailored to race at speeds exceeding 180 mph. For comparability, the manufacturing Harley-Davidson Street Glide weighs as much as 960 lbs., whereas King of the Baggers bikes race at 620 lbs. The weight financial savings afforded by AM are stated to extend pace and efficiency essential lean angle whereas sustaining race weight.
Protolabs highlighted a 3D printed exhaust, made with direct laser steel sintering in titanium which enabled tighter activates the Harley Davidson tourer. Each ¼ diploma additional lean angle is claimed to shave 1/10 of a second in a nook, and with some racetracks that includes as many as 14 turns a lap, each diploma is essential. The exhaust elements on the bike have been traditionally tube welded and have been stated to have restricted the staff’s efforts to maximise lean angle. In keeping with Protolabs, the staff leveraged AM’s design freedom to create exhaust elements that maintained the foot pedal place most comfy to the rider, after which used its CNC machining capability to change the cam cowl, rear break pedal, and rear break caliper to accommodate the brand new design.
The broader motorsport sector is an avid adopter of 3D printing applied sciences. Final yr, McLaren’s Formulation One staff McLaren Racing was reportedly 3D printing 9,000 components a yr with Stratasys stereolithography expertise, whereas Roboze, an Italian producer’s tremendous polymers and composites-focused additive manufacturing applied sciences, was chosen by the Monster Power Yamaha MotoGP staff as its expertise associate by means of to the 2025 season.