Jabil, an American worldwide manufacturing services company has announced that it will partner with the Renault F1 Team to produce 3D-printed car parts for its F1 car competing in the 2019 Formula One World Championship.
Announcing the news at RAPID 2019, John Dulchinos, VP of digital manufacturing at Jabil said, “We’re excited to be part of Renault F1 Team’s strategy to improve performance with additive manufacturing. Our ability to consolidate a global supply chain and scale qualified processes as needed will enable the production of chassis and on-car components in record time.”
3D printing in F1
The Renault F1 Team is an earlier adopter of 3D printing, compelled by the need to produce F1 car parts quickly and economically while reducing vehicle weight and without compromising part strength or integrity.
“Every single aspect of what we do is geared towards excellence. We look forward to taking advantage of Jabil’s growing ecosystem of certified materials, processes and machines to boost parts availability and overall productivity,” said Antoine Magnan, Head of Partnerships at Renault Sport Racing.
In a previous interview with 3D Printing Industry, Force India’s Deputy team Principal, Robert Fernley explained how F1 teams previously used 3D printing as a prototyping tool but were moving towards using 3D printing to create end use parts.
Indeed, the Renault F1 team won’t be the only ones in the paddock to have teamed up with 3D printing companies to produce high performance functional parts. Most major F1 teams have adopted 3D printing in one way or another, – these include Stratasys and McLaren, Willians and EOS, Sauber and Additive Industries, and Ferrari and Magneti Marelli.
Expanding the Jabil Additive Manufacturing Network
Jabil also announced at RAPID 2019 that the production of the race car parts will be driven by expansions at its 3D Printing facilities across the globe. Currently Jabil’s huge network of 3D printing expertise and infrastructure includes 100 facilities in 26 countries with an global additive manufacturing network of more than 200 3D printers.
Its Detroit-area manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills has been the prime beneficiary of these upgrades, acquiring greater 3D printing capabilities for the manufacture of automotive and medical end use parts. The expanded facility will afford customers access to world-class machines for high-speed sintering, selective laser sintering and fused filament fabrication.
The company claims that the recent expansions to its network are designed to address the 3D printing needs of highly regulated industries, like aerospace, automotive, and healthcare.
Prior to this expansion, Jabil achieved significant cost and time reductions for low-to-medium volume manufacturing with Ultimaker 3D printers at the Detroit facility. This came a year after the company became the first commercial customer of the Dragonfly 2020 3D printer, and two years after it became North America’s first recipient of HP’s Multi-Jet Fusion 3D printers.
Jabil’s expanded additive manufacturing capabilities are also complemented by its custom polymer formulations and compounds, developed in its recently established Materials Innovation Center in Minnesota.
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Featured image shows the Renault R.S.19 F1 car. Image via Renault.
