Students hit top gear in speed test

The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre advised the team of 35 from the University of Sheffield on design and manufacture.

The resulting SFR6 car will be entered into Formula Student, an annual motorsport competition backed by the engineering industry, at Silverstone this weekend (9-12).

Sheffield Formula Racing team principal Thomas Bloomfield said: “Entering is the opportunity to develop our real-world skills, gaining hands-on experience so we can prove we are industry-ready students.

“This year we wanted to reduce the weight and bulk of the car while increasing its strength. It was an ideal opportunity to showcase the new technologies being developed by the AMRC.

“For the first time we used robotic machining to mill down tooling blocks to create body panel moulds for composite materials.”

Chris Greaves, project manager at the AMRC’s Integrated Manufacturing Group, said: “By using robotic machining techniques we have developed, we produced five body panel moulds for the car.”

About 100 teams from around the world will take part in Formula Student.