Renishaw contributing to British supersonic car project

BRISTOL, U.K.—Machine tool firm Renishaw is joining a team of British engineers, designers, mathematicians and technologists in a bid to break the 1,000 mph mark and shatter the world land speed record.

According to Renishaw, it will help the BLOODHOUND supersonic car (SSC) build with expertise in additive manufacturing, creating a variety of prototype parts with its laser melting machines.

Renishaw will help the team produce the nose tip with its laser melting machines, which use an additive manufacturing process to fuse together very thin layers of fine metallic powders to form highly complex, functional components.

The prototype will be used by the BLOODHOUND team to evaluate possible manufacturing processes and carry out further engineering analysis.

“We believe that the key benefit of using an additive manufacturing process to produce the nose tip is the ability to create a hollow, but highly rigid titanium structure, and to vary the wall thickness of the tip to minimize weight,” Dan Johns, lead engineer at BLOODHOUND SSC responsible for materials, processes and technologies, said in a statement.

“To machine this component conventionally would be extremely challenging, result in design compromises, and waste as much as 95 per cent of the expensive raw material.”

The nose tip is subject to forces as high as 4,915 lbs./sq.ft.

To cope with such loadings, a prototype tip has been designed in titanium and will be bonded to BLOODHOUND’s carbon fiber monocoque body which forms the front-half of the car.

The BLOODHOUND SSC will attempt to break the 1,000 mph speed barrier during the summer of 2015.