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The season kicked off this 12 months with a race on the , which had not seen a NASCAR Cup Collection race since 1971. Whereas the car 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 people who may need been assembled within the yard garages of the Seventies.
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The variations have been additional obvious in my time spent with only a few days later. Coming into a store on the Hendrick campus already seems like being granted entry to NASA’s manufacturing facility — full with pristine epoxy flooring and stainless-steel plates laid out for automotive meeting (reasonably than rockets). And as you journey deeper into the store you will discover the metrology lab which homes an array of robots which are 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 shortly notice constructing a race automotive is sort of like constructing a rocket, all to seek out what little little bit of a bonus you possibly can acquire towards your opponents and rivals.
Constructing rockets… on wheels
Round 85% of the elements which are 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.
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In keeping with Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman of competitors Chad Knaus, that is key to discovering velocity.
“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 manner that creates efficiency, no matter that metric could also be that we decide is a very powerful efficiency enhancer for that monitor and apply it. Whether or not that be weight, whether or not that be geometry, whether or not that be form. There’s 1,000,000 methods to try this and every race monitor is exclusive during which one it is advisable to apply or how it is advisable to apply it and we try this with all of this Hexagon tools that we’re very lucky to have.”
For example, every NASCAR automotive quantity is allotted a set of major 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 the entire different particular person parts that bolts to them will stack up. That’s the place Knaus sees the largest efficiencies in utilizing a few of this automated measuring tools.
“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 are able to return and reaffirm that our math meets actuality. We try this with each single automotive, each single week, so the duty as you possibly can think about is fairly daunting.”
One in every of Hendrick’s crew members demonstrates Hexagon’s Absolute Arm
One in every of Hendrick’s crew members demonstrates Hexagon’s Absolute ArmBozi Tatarevic
Bozi Tatarevic
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Measuring these elements begins out with Hexagon, an organization that particularly builds robots for a majority of these endeavors, and its Absolute Arm — a versatile gadget {that a} technician can use to create an correct CAD mannequin of any given half utilizing contact probing and laser scanning. Giant 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 beneath 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 actual efficiencies present up as soon as we get deeper into the store, on the metrology lab. This newly launched lab is provided 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 decide 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 one in every of these mounting brackets and place it on the Contact+ coordinate measuring machine (CMM) that was connected to it. The Contact+ recognized the bracket and instantly grabbed a probe from its aspect and began measuring.
The Hexagon Contact+ in motion measuring one of many Hendrick Motorsports’ elements.
The Hexagon Contact+ in motion measuring one of many Hendrick Motorsports’ elements.Bozi Tatarevic
Bozi Tatarevic
A more in-depth view of the half being probed by the Hexagon Contact+ robotic for measurements
A more in-depth view of the half being probed by the Hexagon Contact+ robotic for measurements Bozi Tatarevic
Bozi Tatarevic
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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 the entire 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 the entire drawers earlier within the day. As soon as the entire 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. An important of these is their simulation software program which permits them to construct a automotive just about to a selected 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 monitor.
So, these dozens of suspension mounting brackets at the moment are out there to the engineer that’s just about constructing a automotive for a selected monitor. All the measured elements are pulled from the database and as soon as the automotive is absolutely just about constructed, the knowledge will be shared with mechanics to construct the real-world automotive.
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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 massive stainless-steel plates the place as soon as their work is finished, they’ll 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 whole automotive has been measured, the software program will present any variations which are then investigated and introduced as much as spec (if mandatory). It’s a fully tech-savvy strategy whenever you notice aligning race automobiles was historically carried out with issues like strings or lasers. However at Hendrick, they rely solely on the Absolute Arms to confirm these tight tolerances. Any further modifications to the suspension are merely verified by rescanning these suspension parts.
One of many drawers crammed with elements to be scanned at Hendrick Motorsports.
One of many drawers crammed with elements to be scanned at Hendrick Motorsports.Bozi Tatarevic
Bozi Tatarevic
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Racing the NASCAR Subsequent Gen automotive for a number of years has resulted in a group of obtainable elements for Hendrick and with the ability to precisely catalog them of their database is a part of what permits them to persistently construct quick automobiles. Not solely do they catalog new elements, however in addition 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 monitor.
Whereas Hendrick Motorsports has an in depth database of elements from years of scanning all the pieces made out there 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 attempting to measure as many elements as we are able to simply to confirm what now we have as a result of like I mentioned, previously we have been utilizing two guys to measure with the Romer arms. So, remeasuring all the pieces now we have in our stock. Simply understanding what now we have now. Simply to a manner higher diploma than what we ever thought we might 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 not likely stunning why a crew like Hendrick does so properly on the subject of race day.
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