Creating the Perfect Part

The Oxford Brookes Racing team is pictured.

Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) is a dedicated project run by Oxford Brookes University to guide young engineers through the challenge of designing, building, developing, marketing and competing as a team using their own single-seater racing car.

The project was entered in the international Formula Student competition which judges the cars on a number of criteria: design, cost, presentation, technical and safety aspects, tilt test, brake and noise test, skid pan, 1km sprint, 75m acceleration, 22km endurance and fuel economy.

Since 1999, OBR has scored more points and returned faster laps than any other U.K. Formula Student team, and has been top U.K. team five times. The current team comprises students from all over the world, researching, designing, building and testing the car. Past members of the team have gone on to work for some of the most prestigious and respected engineering names such as Red Bull Racing, Renault F1, Virgin Racing, Force India, Lotus F1, Cosworth and Audi Motorsport.

Finding the Right Tools

This year, the team turned to Seco Tools U.K. to help them develop a complex sequential gearbox shifter barrel.

OBR provided Seco Applications Manager Spencer Adams and Business Development Manager David Magnall, with a drawing and solid model. Seco identified the tooling and geometries, drew up the tool list and then worked in partnership with Edgecam, from Vero Software, to create the toolpaths and manufacture the part.

The Edgecam software platform enabled engineers to make edits quickly and identify issues before the manufacturing process.

Adams, who has undertaken extensive Edgecam training on a course created specially for Seco’s Technical Centre customer project engineers, proved the program out on the carbide cutting tool manufacturer’s Agie Charmilles Mikron HPM 600U 5-axis machine.

Spencer Adams, applications manager at Seco, used an Agie Charmilles Mikron HPM 600U 5-axis machine to manufacture the gearbox.

“This type of part required Edgecam to create the program and make efficient edits, ensuring the barrel was absolutely perfect, first time,” Adams says. “The software’s powerful simulation function was particularly important to the project, giving us the ability to identify any immediate issues before we started to cut metal. We liaised with Edgecam engineers on slight program amendments to the NC (numerical control) code and post processor.”

“The Oxford Brookes enterprise demonstrates the value of the training course we developed for Seco. It was designed to provide Seco engineers with specific knowledge to program more efficiently and effectively using Edgecam for their in-house customer projects. It was particularly exciting to work on this project, as Formula Student uses the excitement and appeal of motorsport to open young minds to the enormous possibilities that a career in engineering involves, and gives them a wealth of real-life experience to help them be successful,” says Wesley Tonks, strategic partnership manger at Edgecam.

More Info

• Oxford Brookes University
• Seco Tools
• Vero Software