Loctite Materials Race Towards Providing Solutions for Motorsport

The Challenge

NISMO, Nissans specialized motorsports team have been working on their new GT500 Super GT Car for the last few years. The car underwent a comprehensive re-design which focused on increasing the performance. However, their engineers were stuck on the re-design of a few critical parts of the race cars “yoke” steering wheel. The driving handles and the gaskets that cover the buttons on the yoke control panel. These parts had to meet exacting standards and have a precision feel. Drivers had given feedback of the current Yoke handles which had traditionally been CNC milled and then covered with leather. The feedback was that they were not as comfortable as they should be and didn’t provide the right “feel” for long term use.

The Solution

The NISMO engineers decided to turn to additive manufacturing and considered a few 3D printing processes along with material options. Bearing in mind that for the yoke handles they required a solution that provided both durability and, more importantly, the correct shore and “rubberized feel” that the drivers preferred. The Stratasys Japan application team recommended the Origin One platform due to its wide variety of functional materials. IND402 was chosen as the most suitable material for the job. IND402 is a single component elastomer material with high elongation and high resilience, that maintains excellent tensile strength and high energy return

Benefits

By leveraging 3D Printing and the additive process, NISMO was able to solve two different problems by using IND402, saving the team critical time needed to focus on other design and testing needs. IND402 offered high resilience and shock dampening characteristics to the yoke steering wheel, giving the drivers more precision control. NISMO now has a comfortable and durable solution in the hands of their drivers testing the new GT500 race car.