 CRP has been instrumental in the success of many winning racing teams. From F1, to MotoGP, WRC (World Rally Championship), American Le Mans Series, Rally Raid (Paris –Dakar) they offer a high level of support throughout the entire project, including the manufacturing process. What makes this company different are the partnerships they have formed with teams. CRP Technology is involved at the earliest design and development stages and their innovative approach to the use of new materials and technology is widely recognised by the race car industry.
CRP Technology is therefore considered a unique service point for several different technologies and engineering activities.
The main activities are:
- HQ & HSM CNC (high speed and high quality machining with 3, 4 and 5 axis)
- Rapid Casting (lost wax casting with RP patterns) in Titanium, Aluminium, Steel alloys or Superalloys
- Rapid Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping services
- Rapid Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping composite materials production and sales
- Total Quality Management
- R&D: continuous research on materials like metallic alloys, plastic materials and new manufacturing processes development
- Reverse Engineering
In particular, CRP manages innovative projects, such as high precision titanium alloy castings and hard to work materials machining of complex shapes.
The Machining department is therefore characterized by CNC milling centres, suited in particular to hi-tech materials machining.
WINDFORM® materials , developed by CRP’s internal R&D Department, are commercialized worldwide. Technological patent pending and trademarks were done.
The Procedure
The CRP R&D department is involved in the Rapid Casting technology since 1997. In 1998 CRP Technology began to work alongside the Minardi F1 team, supplying them the engineering process, the manufacturing process optimization and the manufacturing of front and rear uprights: they began from the study of the Titanium Rapid Casting process. Rapid Casting is based on the combination of Rapid Prototyping technology, to manufacture the disposable pattern, and Investment Casting technology (Investement casting).
The RP disposable pattern is made by a consecutive overlapping of layers, using the Selective Laser Sintering technology. The system doesn’t require any support because the piece is held up by the non sintered powders, therefore giving complete freedom of shape.
The Rapid Casting procedure is composed of a number of steps:
- a disposable pattern is made through RP technique;
- the pattern undergoes wax infiltrations (immersion and capillarity) to increase its strength (to avoid handling breaks);
- the pattern is immersed in a ceramic bath;
- slurries, stuccoing and exsiccation;
- the lost pattern is evacuated: dewaxing with flash firing or in an autoclave and subsequent sintering of the ceramic shell;
- alloy casting with inductor or voltaic arc;
- pouring, cooling, reduction of the shell, shot peening, gate cutting, heat treatments.
The casting structure is formed of an aggregate of grains or polyhedral crystallites which produce isotropy by compensation, while in a solid metal they are anisotropic: it is obvious that isotropy has great advantages, for instance, FEM calculations are very close to the real behaviour of the part thanks to the isotropy of the piece.
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