TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe (TGR-E), headquartered in Cologne, Germany, is the epicenter of Toyota's motorsport engineering and development.
TGR-E is responsible for the technical development of performance cars for prestigious competitions such as the GR010 HYBRID, the reigning FIA World Endurance Championship winning car, and produces the engine for the GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID, the current World Rally Champion. On top of this, the team also supplies specialist development and production services to other organisations and teams working at the top level of motorsport.
In the high-stakes world of automotive engineering, wind tunnel modelling is pivotal for improving performance car aerodynamics. At the forefront of this innovation is 3D printing - empowering engineers to prototype complex components and produce small-scale models for testing with unparalleled speed and precision.
SLA 3D printing is ideal for automotive prototyping and tooling thanks to its ability to create high-precision and detailed components, while massively reducing post-processing time. Stratasys’s Neo SLA printer delivers best-in-class smooth surfaces and complex geometries - essential for accurate aerodynamic testing.
With the Neo, the TGR-E team can create rapid iterative designs, based on tangible wind tunnel data – saving significant post-processing time due to the Neo’s high precision.
The accurate sidewall quality and precision of scaled wind-tunnel models produced by the Neo allows the engineers to reliably simulate real-world conditions to effectively analyze aerodynamic performance.
Working with Stratasys reseller, ProductionToGo, the team at TGR-E have opted for three Neo Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printers from Stratasys to support wind tunnel modelling.
“The open and constructive cooperation with everyone at Stratasys and Production2Go is particularly positive,“ says Christopher Sigmund, Groupleader at Toyota Gazoo.
The team have been very impressed with the printed surface quality from the Neo, and how easy it is to use the printer.
Christopher Sigmund continues, “The printers are very stable and run at a much higher speed than our previous SLA printers. The majority of the components had a really good surface and required very little reworking.”
Somos® PerFORM material produces strong, high temperature-resistant composite parts, with the lowest viscosity of any composite stereolithography material. Parts are faster to build and easier to clean, and possess superior sidewall quality, with unmatched feature detail.
