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Materials and components
News Release from: Huntsman Advanced Materials | Subject: RenPaste
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 09 May 2003
Modelling paste races car to Daytona
RenPaste seamless modelling paste has proved instrumental in the successful development of a new generation of high-performance cars for the Daytona race circuit.
RenPaste seamless modelling paste has proved instrumental in the successful development of a new generation of high-performance cars for the Daytona race circuit, built by race car specialist Picchio in Italy Based in Ancarano in central Italy, Picchio designs, manufactures and markets short-run state-of-the-art racing cars for the international supercar circuit
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 30 Jul 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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For the Daytona prototype project, designers and engineers at Picchio worked together to design a new category of high-performance car.
This later proved highly competitive, qualifying third at this year's Daytona "24 hours" endurance race.
After intensive research into the range of materials available for this type of rapid prototyping application, Picchio specified the epoxy modelling paste RenPaste SV/HV 4503 from RenShape Solutions.
This was used to make the model of the car body, comprising ten separate components.
The largest of these, for the car boot, measured 2 x 2 x 1m.
Picchio's engineers first built a slightly undersized polystyrene model of the car body, from CAD data.
This was covered in a 40mm thick layer of RenPaste which was dispensed through a meter/mix machine.
Once cured, the RenPaste model was machined to the exact required dimensions for the car body.
This was then used to build the moulds in which about 20 carbon fibre prototypes were vacuum-bagged.
"We chose RenPaste because it provides the right balance between costs, time and quality", explained Guido Pandoli, from Picchio.
"Also polystyrene is a low cost material compared to wood or other materials and using RenPaste enables us to minimise waste materials".
"For example, if we used a wooden model, we would have to throw away the core of the model, as we only needed the outer contour.
Paste models also exhibit an excellent surface finish".
Using RenPaste SV/HV 4503, Picchio was able to deliver the new car to its customer just seven months after it left the drawing board.
The usual timescale with this type of project averages a year.
"Speed is the key element for us", said Di Pietrantonio, Managing Director of Picchio, "both in racing and the manufacturing of our cars".
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