Energica Motor Company’s Ego Corsa electric motorbikes had a strong showing at the MotoE races, following setbacks in manufacturing.
The bikes are created with several parts 3D printed in CRP’s high-strength Windform material.
For a time this spring, it seemed they might not make the race: 18 bikes were totally destroyed in a fire. Less than three months later, though, they had all been completely remade and the team was ready to race.
At the beginning of July, the inaugural weekend of MotoE saw Energica’s bikes take to the Sachsenring race track.
Racing On With 3D Printing
There are few better ways to prove out manufacturing technologies — pushing them to their limits in a race will certainly show which parts will hold up to harsh conditions.
Racing has become an important market for 3D printing due in part to the technology’s ability to lightweight parts and to create end-use parts, prototyping, and tooling on demand.
The demand was certainly there for this demanding race, as the time crunch of rebuilding challenged Energica and its technological partners, CRP Technology and CRP Meccanica.
CRP Technology 3D printed battery pack parts, the motor terminal cover, and the transponder holder, among other parts, for the bikes in Windform material. For its part, CRP Meccanica created additional parts with high-precision CNC machining. The two together highlight the importance of using appropriate complementary technologies in achieving optimal results.
CRP’s Role With MotoE
CRP, which has been pretty open about sharing the news of both setback and bounce back, played an important role in ensuring race-ready vehicles.
Following the race results, which showed solid performance from both machines and drivers, the company was understandably proud of the way its tech contributions paid off.
“This data,” stated Franco Cevolini, CEO and CTO at CRP companies, “makes us very proud and pay us back for all the efforts made! Mounted on all the Ego Corsa machines that have raced on Sachsenring racetrack and that will be racing there are many parts built by CRP companies using additive and subtractive technologies.”
The tech partnership extended beyond R&D, Cevolini was sure to note, as CRP also worked “to supply Energica with end use components for racing.”
To be a successful technological partner, a supplier like CRP has to thoroughly understand the needs of its partner and the conditions under which the tech will be performing. Only then can a well-suited solution come to fruition.
And that, Cevolini underscored, is just what CRP Meccanica and CRP Technology did, leveraging their more than five decades’ F1 experience.
He said, “our motto is: work hard, fast and provide excellent services.”
The Ego Corsa bikes will be set for their next raes soon, as round two of the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup is to be held in mid-August in Austria.
The work, of course, won’t end there for CRP either:
“CRP do not rest on laurels: we are still working alongside Energica R&D team on the 2020 Ego Corsa machines,” said Cevolini.
Via CRP Group