Catesby Projects chasing lap time gains for elite racing teams with Artec 3D scanning

Artec 3D has shared the following article about MIA member Catesby Projects.

Catesby Projects chasing lap time gains for elite racing teams with Artec 3D scanning

In the world of motorsport, fine margins are often the difference between success and failure. A few tenths of a second may sound like an incredibly finite time period, but lose that each lap to your competitors, and you’ll quickly find your team’s at the back of the field.

So, how do these racing outfits identify ways of reducing lap times? That largely depends on the series we’re talking about. In Formula 1, each team designs and manufactures their car from scratch. While some certainly take inspiration from others, the sport’s competition model makes way for a ‘development race,’ where they compete to find lap time across a season.

In practice, this sees F1 constructors reshape floors, side pods, front wings, rear wings, and other aerodynamic parts, so that cars can glide more efficiently through the air.

However, things work slightly differently in a single-make series. As these championships are fought for in completely identical cars, gains can be harder to find, and instead of engaging in a development race, team engineers have to focus on optimizing setup.

But, the problem with simulation work is that it relies on you having accurate 3D models to test with, and manufacturers don’t often want to hand out the valuable CAD data behind these. This is where Catesby Projects can help. The UK-based aerodynamics and simulation specialist scans such cars and creates R&D-ready 3D models for teams in single and multi-make series alike.

“Let’s say someone has bought a car to enter a series,” explains Jon Paton, a Project Manager at Catesby Projects. “They’re not allowed to change or modify it, but they want to try and get the best setup out of it that they can.”

“We scan it and do computer simulation work to find out what the aerodynamic changes could be. We then help them see if changing the front wing angle or adding a bit more rake (floor angle) would help on specific circuits.”

“3D scanning enables us to do a whole load of simulation work, all virtually without ever having seen the CAD data to make a physical model.”

No choice” but 3D scanning

Operating as part of wider engineering consultancy group TotalSim, Catesby offers physical and computational testing services that facilitate aero development and validation. Many of these are now enabled by Artec 3D scanning, but that wasn’t always the case.

With the manufacturers of single-make championship race vehicles so reluctant to share CAD data, Paton says engineers “effectively have no choice, you need a 3D scanner.”

His firm’s initial efforts actually revolved around using a photogrammetry kit, which provided global accuracy, and an Artec Eva for picking up fine details. Since then, the company has improved the accuracy and speed of its process further, working with Artec Ambassador Central Scanning to switch to the more advanced Artec Leo and Ray.

According to Junior Design Engineer Tom Parrish, who got his first taste of Leo 3D scanning six months ago when he started with the firm, picking up the device was also a breeze.

“When I first started using it, I remember it being very intuitive,” explained Parrish. “As it’s quite user friendly and its interface is so good, there are actually a limited number of things that can go wrong. Just to practice with, I scanned a sofa and a chair, and when I first saw a 3D model appear live on the built-in display, it was very cool!”

In its US office, Paton adds that Catesby uses a cheaper, wired scanner too, and as well as bringing cable-free flexibility, he says Artec Leo is comparatively much faster.

“We can now usually scan a race car over a couple of days out on-site. We take the car apart and scan the whole thing on day one with Ray and Leo,” said Paton. “Then we gradually disassemble it bit-by-bit, so we can scan every duct, take a wheel off, scan the calipers, pads, and everything else, before putting it all back together again.”

“We do trips to Brazil, France, and Germany, and we can just take Leo, hop on a plane, we scan there for two days, then we hop back.”

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