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News Release from: Leica Geosystems AG | Subject: Universal CMM
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 September 2005
Pole Position in Design Measurement
Race.
Red Bull Racing Second Formula 1 Team to Install State-of-art Measurement Equipment for Wind Tunnel Tests
The Metrology Division of Leica Geosystems has announced that Red Bull Racing, which joined the elite Formula 1 circuit this season, is already beating its rivals to the post when it comes to the speed and accuracy of crucial pre-race design tests RBR will be the second team on the Formula 1 circuit to install a Universal CMM in its wind tunnel test facility
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 3 Mar 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Steve Nevey, RBR business development manager, says: "Our goal is, of course, to win races, and the only way we will achieve that is by fully optimizing the performance of the car".
"We wanted the fastest and most accurate portable measurement system available and that means the Leica Geosystems LTD800 Laser Tracker, with the portable Leica T-Probe and Metrolog XG for Leica software".
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"To achieve our goal, we must be able to use the wind tunnel test facility on a round-the-clock basis to continuously reduce turbulence and increase down-force".
"The system will be built into our new tunnel in order to minimize down time and maximize use." Nevey says the Leica equipment offers many advantages, including unprecedented accuracy and excellent customer support, but the "killer feature" is speed.
Until now, the RBR team used height gauges to set up the race car in the wind tunnel - a process that required a good two hours to complete.
With the Leica solution, they need just 20 minutes.
Duncan Redgewell, Vice President of European Sales at Leica Geosystems, says this represents the solution to a "previously unsolved measurement challenge." He adds that there is no other system currently available that can solve all the team's measurement problems in just one setup.
Says Redgewell: "The Leica Laser Tracker allows the RBR team to see the entire car from one location".
"Other solutions would require measurement sensors around the car, which would cause not just a considerable increase in time but a corresponding loss of accuracy as well." With alternative systems, measurement technicians have no way of accurately transferring changes made to the model car back to the original CAD model.
As aerodynamic changes are sometimes made manually and in an ad hoc manner, this means they are difficult to calculate and the original design is not updated to take account of them.
This shortfall can make the difference between success and failure, as F1 cars are in constant development and teams require a new prototype for each race.
Measurement accuracy is also a key requirement.
The RBR wind tunnel team not only needs to measure the entire car as rapidly as possible, it must do so with accuracy levels of within 0.1 millimeter.
No other portable measurement system currently has this capacity.
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