Graphite Additive Manufacturing worked closely in association with Schumacher Racing Cars, a leading manufacturer of remote control vehicles and accessories, on a project to build a radio controlled car created almost entirely by 3D printing.

Schumacher (www.racing-cars.com) are a British manufacturer renowned worldwide for their original and innovative radio control model car designs. Using the manufacturer’s original design drawings, Graphite re-created replacement parts with their specialist Selective Laser Sintering (SLS*) process.

Metal components such as shock absorbers, floor pan and nuts & bolts, along with the rubber tyres, were carried over from the standard car. But 90% of the originally injection-moulded plastic parts were replaced by Graphite’s Carbon-SLS material, a carbon fibre reinforced plastic. Once built, the replacement parts, including bodywork, gearbox casing, suspension & steering components, aerodynamic aids and wheels, all bolted straight on in their appropriate positions, with no additional work required other than the tapping of threads in certain parts. The carbon fibre reinforced material that Graphite utilises has the highest stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios of any other 3D printed plastic, and its use on this project gave a weight saving on the finished ‘carbon’ car of 10% when compared to the car in standard trim.