Midlands 3D are proud to announce a new technical partnership with West Surrey Racing, ahead of the 2022 British Touring Car Championship. Parts manufactured in the Midlands 3D facility based in Stone, Staffordshire will be used on the Team BMW 330e M Sport race cars as they take to the Donington Park grid on April 23rd for the season opener.
The Staffordshire-based organisation offers a range of 3D printing services including prototyping, design and manufacturing services. Technologies include FDM, SLA and industry-leading HP Multi-Jet Fusion (MJF) to produce strong, durable components from their fully in-house manufacturing facility, perfect for the fast paced and demanding functional requirements of motorsport applications.
In line with the BTCC’s incorporation of electric-hybrid powertrain technology in 2022, Midlands 3D’s use of sustainable materials – such as recycled filaments from Filamentive and HP’s High Reusability PA12 nylon - in their production processes, helps WSR to move towards a less environmentally-impactful way of working.
With reduced lead times and increased design flexibility on component design compared to more traditional manufacturing processes, and a reduced reliance on an increasingly fragile supply-chain, on-demand 3D printing is increasingly popular for motorsport and wider automotive industry applications.
The two WSR-run Team BMW 330e M Sports of four-time BTCC champion Colin Turkington and team-mate Stephen Jelley plus the ROKiT MB Motorsport 3 Series of Jake Hill will use components created by Midlands 3D throughout the 2022 BTCC season.
The company’s branding will also appear on all three race cars.
The 64th BTCC season kicks off at Donington Park on April 23rd & 24th and features a 10-round season at the UK’s best racetracks. Every race is shown live and uninterrupted on ITV4 in high definition.
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “We’re very pleased to announce this technical partnership with Midlands 3D. Using components produced with Multi-Jet Fusion technology is a first for WSR and we’re very interested to see how we can not only reduce lead times, but also - through the use of HP’s High Reusability PA12 - improve the sustainability of what we use to build and prepare our championship-winning BMWs.
Paul Moloney, Managing Director, Midlands 3D, said: “We’re extremely pleased to enter a technical partnership with WSR; one of the most successful teams in the 60-plus year history of the British Touring Car Championship. We see the BTCC as an ideal platform to showcase our capabilities and processes showing how our sustainability focus can be of benefit to the motorsport industry. We believe WSR are perfect partners to help us achieve this.”
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