How robots are serving to NASCAR groups make higher, quicker race automobiles

The NASCAR season kicked off this yr with a race on the historic Bowman Grey Stadium, which had not seen a NASCAR Cup Sequence race since 1971. Whereas the parking zone paddock behind the fieldhouse hearkened again to these early days of inventory automotive racing, some 40-plus years earlier than, the automobiles within the storage that day have been removed from those who might need been assembled within the yard garages of the Seventies.

The variations have been additional obvious in my time spent with Hendrick Motorsports just some days later. Getting into a store on the Hendrick campus already looks like being granted entry to NASA’s manufacturing facility — full with pristine epoxy flooring and chrome steel plates laid out for automotive meeting (somewhat than rockets). And as you journey deeper into the store you will discover the metrology lab which homes an array of robots which can be measuring one of the best elements for a automotive right down to the thousandths (0.000) to be used of their subsequent set of automobiles for the following race.

You rapidly understand constructing a race automotive is sort of like constructing a rocket, all to search out what little little bit of a bonus you’ll be able to acquire towards your opponents and rivals.

Constructing rockets… on wheels

Round 85% of the elements which can be used to construct a NASCAR Cup automotive should come from a single-source provider. Groups are required to make use of these elements as-delivered from the provider. Nevertheless, they’re allowed to decide on how they mix elements throughout meeting and that is the place efficiency positive aspects will be discovered.

In response to Hendrick Motorsports vp of competitors Chad Knaus, that is key to discovering pace.

“They wish to have a set of tolerances that everyone has to function inside and it’s as much as us to take these tolerances, stack them up in a means that creates efficiency, no matter that metric could also be that we decide is a very powerful efficiency enhancer for that observe and apply it. Whether or not that be weight, whether or not that be geometry, whether or not that be form. There’s one million methods to try this and every race observe is exclusive during which one you must apply or how you must apply it and we do this with all of this Hexagon gear that we’re very lucky to have.”

As an illustration, every NASCAR automotive quantity is allotted a set of main chassis items: seven heart sections, ten entrance clips, and ten rear clips. So, a 4 automotive crew like Hendrick Motorsports, has to maintain up with measurements for over 100 of those items and the way all the different particular person parts that bolts to them will stack up. That’s the place Knaus sees the most important efficiencies in utilizing a few of this automated measuring gear.

“It helps us predict the place we really feel like geometry can be as soon as we put the parts collectively after which after we put the parts collectively we will return and reaffirm that our math meets actuality. We do this with each single automotive, each single week, so the duty as you’ll be able to think about is fairly daunting.”

Measuring these elements begins out with Hexagon, an organization that particularly builds robots for some of these endeavors, and its Absolute Arm — a versatile system {that a} technician can use to create an correct CAD mannequin of any given half utilizing contact probing and laser scanning. Massive elements like the middle part are probed and scanned as quickly as they arrive in and added to their elements database. NASCAR permits for a tolerance of 0.150 inches of their at-track inspection scans. Hendrick is ready to obtain an accuracy of underneath 0.010 inches of their store scans and that room is what permits them to assemble elements proper on the sting of guidelines to maximise efficiency.

However the true efficiencies present up as soon as we get deeper into the store, on the metrology lab. This newly launched lab is supplied with robotic scanners that require little or no intervention and might scan parts like suspension uprights or brackets routinely. 

A Hexagon Tempo robotic with a movable arm that may choose up elements sits in a single nook of their metrology lab and is loaded with drawers of management arm mounting brackets. I watch because the Tempo opens a drawer after which makes use of an arm to select up considered one of these mounting brackets and place it on the Contact+ coordinate measuring machine (CMM) that was hooked up to it. The Contact+ recognized the bracket and instantly grabbed a probe from its facet and began measuring.

The Hexagon Contact+ in motion measuring one of many Hendrick Motorsports’ elements.

Picture by: Bozi Tatarevic

A better view of the half being probed by the Hexagon Contact+ robotic for measurements

Picture by: Bozi Tatarevic

The output from that measurement begins filling in on a close-by display screen. As soon as the bracket iss measured, the robotic arm picks it up and locations it again within the drawer. After all the brackets within the first drawer are measured, the robotic arm closes the drawer and opens the following one. The one intervention required from a technician is loading all the drawers earlier within the day. As soon as all the brackets are measured, their dimensions are exported from the machine and right into a database that feeds quite a lot of instruments for Hendrick engineers and mechanics. A very powerful of these is their simulation software program which permits them to construct a automotive nearly to a particular physique and suspension measurements.

From digital to actuality — a brand new, quicker automotive

A few thousandths of an inch of distinction between any of the 2 brackets measured from these scans, can result in a suspension geometry that equates to hurry on observe. 

So, these dozens of suspension mounting brackets are actually accessible to the engineer that’s nearly constructing a automotive for a particular observe. The entire measured elements are pulled from the database and as soon as the automotive is absolutely nearly constructed, the knowledge will be shared with mechanics to construct the real-world automotive. 

Elements are recognized by QR codes and serial numbers, making it simple for the mechanics to establish them. They’re tasked to assemble the automobiles on these giant chrome steel plates the place as soon as their work is finished, they may use one of many 33 Hexagon Absolute Arms round their facility to measure the assembled automotive and ensure it matches the digital mannequin. As soon as the complete automotive has been measured, the software program will present any variations which can be then investigated and introduced as much as spec (if needed). It’s a completely tech-savvy strategy once you understand aligning race automobiles was historically performed with issues like strings or lasers. However at Hendrick, they rely solely on the Absolute Arms to confirm these tight tolerances. Any extra modifications to the suspension are merely verified by rescanning these suspension parts.

One of many drawers full of elements to be scanned at Hendrick Motorsports.

Picture by: Bozi Tatarevic

Racing the NASCAR Subsequent Gen automotive for a number of years has resulted in a set of obtainable elements for Hendrick and having the ability to precisely catalog them of their database is a part of what permits them to constantly construct quick automobiles. Not solely do they catalog new elements, however additionally they rescan those self same elements as soon as the race automobiles are torn down after a race. This not solely permits them to maintain a big assortment, however may also reveal if a component is broken or out of tolerance after it has seen the observe.

Whereas Hendrick Motorsports has an in depth database of elements from years of scanning every part made accessible to them, the job isn’t over fairly but. New robotic instruments, delivered final fall, have required one other spherical of scanning. Hendrick Motorsports’ high quality management supervisor Roy Crump shared with Motorsport.com throughout my go to, “For the final two or three months, we’ve been making an attempt to measure as many elements as we will simply to confirm what we’ve as a result of like I mentioned, previously we have been utilizing two guys to measure with the Romer arms. So, remeasuring every part we’ve in our stock. Simply understanding what we’ve now. Simply to a means higher diploma than what we ever thought we’d have. And it simply helps construct the arrogance of what we’re placing collectively.”

Along with these 33 Absolute Arms, Hendrick additionally makes use of seven CMMs and 13 scanners from Hexagon and continues to increase these capabilities with the launch of their new Hexagon Metrology Lab. With all this know-how at their disposal, it’s probably not shocking why a crew like Hendrick does so nicely in the case of race day.