Cold, sun and 30 cm of fresh snow welcomed the competitors of the second race of the ICE CHALLENGE 2017 in Pragelato Italy.The performances of the D4S Motorsport Citroen DS3 prototype are extremely convincing.
In fact Sergio Durante won the King of Masters race in Pragelato (Italy) after a breathtaking duel against Luca Oldini on his Peugeot 307 Prototype.
Sergio Durante carried out a convincing race, turning his Citroën DS3 Proto like clockwork and being precise and spectacular as a classic dancer buttoning up turns, and drifting.
Best Lap Time: Sergio Durante in 38 “818 (third round).
Dr. Nickolas Ridgway and Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante participated at the International Conference TRAM (Trend in Advanced Machining, Manufacturing and Materials) in Chicago at the IMTS 2014, the famous Machine Tool and Robotic fear in USA. They presented a new approach on the manufacturing of high quality components for motorsport and aeronautic sector, based on a life cycle approach. This permits to achieve better, faster and less pollutant components with respect to the previous technologies. Some of the technologies and results were developed and tested in the European Funded Project REFORM, dealing with advanced composites materials.
Invited Keynote lecture at TRAM 2009 worldwide Conference
Wednesday, 9, September, 2009
New methodologies for development of high efficient Machining of difficult to cut materials
Authors:
Sergio Durante, Mauro Comoglio
1D4S Motorsport, Mar Adriatico 2, 38612 Granadilla de Abona, Spain,
2DIAD , Str. Della Praia 12/C, I-10090 Buttigliera Alta (TO) Italy,
In Sheffield at the AMRC with Boeing facilities, Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante presented a paper on high efficient machining.
The article and the keynote focuses on the automotive and aerospace industries. In these industries the need for enhanced materials performance is necessary if they are to remain competitive in global terms. Unfortunately the material properties, which make them so attractive to the aerospace and automotive industry can also make them difficult to machine. This paper will discuss integrated developments in machining techniques and cutting tools, which are emerging to cope with difficult to cut materials.
Introduction
Due to the increasingly competitive nature of the commercial aircraft and automotive markets, environmental issues and affordability are the prime market drivers.
In the aerospace sector, the implication of this is a market requirement for faster, cheaper, quieter aircraft. There is also a need to reduce operational costs by producing, more economical and reliable aircraft with an increased operating life. To meet these requirements the aircraft designers are producing larger, thinner complex (monolithic) parts, which can be assembled more easily without the recourse to jigs and fixtures. This is forcing manufacturers to consider using more exotic alloys, composites and mixed metal matrices, with a large impact on machining technology. Similar trends are occurring in the military aircraft sector where, in addition to affordability, stealth technology is forcing the use of new materials and design techniques.
In addition to the technological issues the aerospace industry is now moving towards the model of the automotive with the large OEMs concentrating on large system integration with component manufacture moving into the supply chain. This is having an impact as the companies now machining difficult to cut materials are unaware of the materials research being carried out at the OEM level and they can be faced with a machining problem on a material where they have little previous experience.
In the automotive sector new products now face stringent economic and environmental demands. In Europe emission legislation and the demands for higher performance from smaller engines have together driven the development of diesel engine technology over the past 10 years.
Integrated development of high performance tools for efficient machining of difficult to cut materials in automotive and aerospace applications
Authors:
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante – DIAD (IT)
Prof. Keith Ridgway – AMRC with Boeing
Dr. Eng. Mauro Comoglio – Centro Ricerche FIAT (IT)
On October 25th, Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante presented a Keynote Address in the Frankfurt AIRTEC2007 Plenary Session International Conference.
Airbus 380 – Courtesy of Airbus, Our Partner in the AFFIX Project:
Aligning, Holding and Fixing Flexible and Difficult to Handle Components
The speech focuses on the automotive, aerospace industries. In all these industries the need for enhanced materials performance is necessary if they are to remain competitive in global terms. The aerospace industry is currently under-going the changes originally experienced in the automotive industry with increasing acceptance that the OEMs are large system integrators and increasing use of sub-contractors.
This approach has a wide-ranging impact on future developments as the OEMs are pushing research down the supply chain. This creates the risk of creating a major discontinuity between the performance requirements of the OEMs and the manufacturing capabilities of the supply chain. As the OEMs require increasing performance it is essential that the supply chain have the manufacturing capability to cope with the enhanced material properties required. This discontinuity is addressed in this proposal as new production processes will be developed to cope with the new materials and also the major design changes occurring in the industries considered.
The aerospace and automotive factories of the future will involve jig less assembly and more responsive manufacturing processes.
This will include increased flexibility, including intelligent work-holding devises and fixtures, adaptive machining, active damping. These will be required to reduce manufacturing costs and increase the accuracy required for jig less assembly.
Al of these aspects have a major impact on machining tool.
New materials for high temperature parts – MMTECH project
Wednesday, 8 June, 2016
An MMTECH dissemination event at the famous race Cesana -Sestriere, in Italy, valid for the European Championship of Hill Climbing
New materials for high temperature parts – MMTECH project
D4S Motorsport is a core member of the Consortium MMTECH, a multinational coalition of enterprises focused on the development and application of a new generation of materials for high temperature applications (turbochargers, aerospace turbines, rockets).
The MMTech project is focusing on the development of technologies and methodologies which have the potential to save cost and time across the whole aircraft lifecycle, including design, production, maintenance, overhaul, repair and retrofit. It will investigate the steps needed to certify the new technologies for use on planes. The scientific target is based on the sustainable introduction of titanium aluminide alloys in the gamma phase, known as gamma titanium aluminides or γ-TiAl.
This is a promising material for aerospace (but also high-end automotive) applications because is performs well at the high temperatures found in engines and is lighter than the nickel alloys which are currently in use. However, it is extremely brittle at low temperatures and so is hard to work with.
There are several bottlenecks to the general introduction of γ-TiAl in aerospace and automotive components. The various alloys are currently expensive and are hard to obtain, so machining large block of material is unattractive. Making parts using near-net techniques such a rapid manufacture (RM) uses less material, but comes with its own problems. Powder properties can vary across suppliers and even between batches, meaning that process parameters need to be set for each new build. Near net parts also need machining, but because γ-TiAl is brittle at low temperatures, it is extremely hard to finish-machine the components without producing cracks. MMTECH will develop methods of creating stable, consistent powder batches and investigate adaptive manufacturing techniques which can automatically vary deposition and machining parameters based on information gained during previous parts of the process chain. It will also look into ways of softening the material during processing using lasers to reduce cracking.
Specific advanced tools will be used for the new approach, based on integration of experimental testing and multi-scale modeling. Multi-scale modelling techniques will be applied to the manufacturing route to predict the inherent material properties of the γ-TiAl parts produced with RM and to optimise the laser-assisted machining process for high performance and high-quality production.
These goals will be achieved by meeting a number of technology challenges:
• The production of powders with stable physical properties
• The reduction of rapid manufacturing costs
• The improvement of machining processes
• The development of multi-scale models of the manufacturing process chain
Presentation of advanced engineering activities to the Rotary Club Board and meeting with local personalities
Monday, 5, April, 2016 and 1st of May 2016
Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante made a presentation about the latest innovation in advanced materials and manufacturing technologies at the Board of the Rotary Club Tenerife (Spain) on Monday the 5th April.
The presentation include some technical slides and videos and it was structured in two distinct parts, related to state of the art technologies and running research activities-
The first part of the presentation was focused on new carbon fibers manufacturing technologies developed in the International Project REFORM. REFORM focuses on more resource-efficiency and cleaner manufacturing technologies for composite components to be exploited in different industrial sectors (e.g. Transport, Energy, Construction, ..). Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are becoming very popular as their use reduces weight and allow innovative designs for energy-saving products during service-life. The central idea of REFORM is to focus on the manufacturing processes of FRP components considering, with an holistic view, the whole manufacturing cycle.
To this end the REFORM Consortium consists of 13 European organizations, with a record of excellence in their field of expertise, than can be grouped as follows:
– 7 high tech industrials: TEKS (France), D4S Motorsport, MACH4 and NOVA (Italy), DVST and ModuleWorks (UK), Formtech (Sweden);
– 2 industry end users, namely ACCIONA (Spain) – a global leader in the civil infrastructure and AZIMUT, (Italy) a leading boat builder supplying luxury yachts
– 1 University: USFD (UK)
– 3 research organizations: TECNALIA (Spain), IPT (Germany), SICOMP (Finland)
A spectacular video showed the tests carried out in Lapland (Finland) to prove the mechanical performances of the composites in extreme weather conditions.
The second part of the presentation was related with some new innovative surface engineering treatments, currently under development in the international research project HIPPOCAMP. These coatings deposited on the surface of metal parts, like turbocompressor components or other powertrain parts, are able to reduce the wear and to damp the vibrations occurring in the above mentioned parts during the normal conditions of use. This permits longer compent life and better efficiency reducing the fuel consumption
Further meetings followed:
• on Monday 1st May with the Italian Consul and the Mayor of Adeje
• on the 25th of May the Rotary Scholarship Award event at the University of La Laguna, in presence of the rector Antonio Martinson Cejas.
Picture: Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante with Dr. Guido Gianoli, President of the Rotary Club, in the beautiful environment of the H10 Hotel in Tenerife
From the left: Dr.SIlvio Pelizzolo, Italian Onorary Consul, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga, Mayor of Adeje in Tenerife (ES) and Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante
From the left: Dr. Antonina Giacobbe, editor of the newspaper ViviTenerife, Prof. Jose Carlo Alberto, president of the Rotary Tenerife, Prof. Antonio Martinson Cejas, Rector of the La Laguna University, Dr. Guido Gianoli, President of the Rotary Tenerife Sur, and Dr. Sergio Durante
D4S Motorsport carried out some reference tests for the Hippocamp technology
Wednesday, 30, March, 2016 – Pavia (IT)
D4S Motorsport is setting up new technologies to be applied to turbocompressor parts and gearboxes for racing and tourism cars.
In fact the 2016 will be definitely the year of the tests for advanced components for the cooling system and advanced surface engineering for these kind of components.
As already mentioned in another press release, in the project MICROFAST D4S Motorsport is developing a revolutionary ultralight titanium water pump to keep the racing engine at super-stable temperature even in extreme and/or fast variable weather conditions.
At the same time new advanced low friction and passive damping coatings are under development in the international project named HIPPOCAMP. The turboicompressor shaft and the transmission parts are under testing in the extreme conditions of the race to measure the performance gain in comparison with several more traditional solutions.
It is the first time that D4S Motorsport is applying F1 and Le Mans Series technologies into the Karting races.
As it happened last year, Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante will be the chief test driver for both the technologies and he will personally participate to the World Championship 2016 that will be held in Sweden on the next September to prove the technologies on the real field.
Sergio Durante with Cristiano Cedrino and Mauro Comoglio with the D4S Motorsport Porsche Proto ready for the Hippocamp Technology tests.
D4S Motorsport is preparing the 2016 kart season: new advanced technology for gearboxes.
Friday, 19, February, 2016 – Helsinki
D4S Motorsport is setting up new technologies to be applied to racing gearboxes for KZ karts.
In fact the 2016 will be definitely the year of the tests for advanced components for the cooling system and advanced surface engineering for the gear sets.
In the project MICROFAST Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante is developing a revolutionary ultralight titanium water pump to keep the racing engine at super-stable temperature even in extreme and/or fast variable weather conditions.
At the same time new advanced low friction and passive damping coatings are under development in the international project named HIPPOCAMP. The transmission parts will be tested in the extreme conditions of the race to measure the performance gain in comparison with several more traditional solutions.
It is the first time that Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante is applying F1 and Le Mans Series technologies into the Karting races.
As it happened last year, Sergio Durante will be the test driver in the World Championship 2016 that will be held in Sweden on the next September and in Bahrain on November.
Ice Series in Breuil Cervinia (Italy) suspended for high risk of avalanches
Sunday, 31, January, 2016
The long-awaited race planned in Cervinia for this weekend has been suspended by the local authorities for high risk of avalanches.
On Saturday, the day started with a beautiful sun in a blue sky, but, during the afternoon, a big storm from West hit the Cervino areas and started the snowfall.
The heavy snowfall lasted for all the night and the following morning, making on the ground more than one meter of snow.
The Organising Committe did their best to prepare the track in a very extreme weather condition, but the risk of avalanche reached the maximum level (number 5) during the Sunday morning. The Police and the local authorithies decided to not take such a great risk and evacuated the area.
The Ice Series Circus accepted the decision and the Championship is postponed to the next event.
D4S Motorsport – EFESTO – FIDIA: Agreement to produce a futuristic parallel hybrid race car for Baja 1000
Tuesday, 26, January, 2016
A collaboration between D4S Motorsport, EFESTO and FIDIA will shortly give birth to a new generation of hybrid parallel race cars for dirt application.
The basic idea is to twin two engines, a high performance internal combustion chamber racing V6, with a revolutionary super light electric engine setupp by EFESTO.
The combined power of the two units will produce a stellar 1000HP that will be transmitted to the ground through a D4S Motorsport full titanium gearbox.
Two options are under evaluation: a truck and a light rallycross car.
A running discussion with Armin Schwarz, a veteran of the race, will help to better understand the best technical options.
The rallycross car weight of the car, contained in less than 1100 kg and the four wheel drive traction will permit a fighter-jet acceleration of about 1.5s from 0 to 100Km/h and a superlative traction in different road conditions, from tarmac, to gravel, wet, snow and ice.
New logics and software strategies will permit to reduce the need of the batteries to the minimum, keeping the weight under strict control.
The exceptional quality of some machined parts will be guarantee by the latest generation FIDIA machine tools.
As usual in our philosophy, the car will participate to different races, to prove the technologies in the field and then re-engineered and transferred to normal production cars. The hard Baja 1000, the incredible Pikes Peaks and the stressing Dakar races are in the list of the best candidates.
Pictures: A developed parallel hybrid solution for aerospace application; Running tests on the super light electric engine capable of peaks of 300 HP and 500 NM of torque with a weight of only 20.3 kg; Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante and Dr. Luca Morfino, CEO of EFESTO in Paris (France ); The idea of a parallel hybrid car, involves high technologies as power electronic, batteries, engines and a lot of software programming; A last generation FIDIA machine tool.