HAWKS racing: an international element to the Creaform Student Sponsorship Program!

Maybe because we’re a North American company, when we first launched our Student Sponsorship Program, we sort of expected to receive mostly applications from teams located either in Canada or the US. But in the past years, we’ve been pleasantly surprised to see teams from elsewhere applying as well. In 2015, recipients of the Program, who among other things received a loaned HandySCAN 3D portable scanner for the entire school year, include one team from France, one team from Spain, and one team from Germany. The latter hails from HAW Hamburg, or Hamburg’s University of Applied Science.

Their team is called HAWKS Racing, and they compete in the Formula Student circuit, a student engineering competition (similar to the Formula SAE we have in the American continent) which takes place in England every summer.

The H0X

For their 10^th participation to the Formula Student competition, the HAWKS team designed a performance-driven single-place vehicle, with a new chassis concept, revised suspension kinematics and a newly developed aerodynamic package.

Their race car, dubbed H0X, weighs only 203 kg this year, or over 2 kg less than its previous model. The team designed the CFRP monocoque so it extends to the rear of the vehicle, thus replacing the steel frame, for a more lightweight profile. Additionally, the race car benefits from new tires, a double-wishbone suspension, and from ABS brakes, which both increases driver safety and improves speed.

How their HandySCAN 3D was used

The HAWKS team reported that their loaned 3D scanner unit was of “really great assistance” in their remodelling of H0X. They used it to scan different parts of the engine, such as the gear controlling cylinder and the engine body itself. 

3D Scanning the lower part of the engine/Fully scanned engine

The scan and resulting CAD files helped HAWKS position the gear into the race car frame, for instance when it came to attachment points for the air intake system as well as the clutch and the shifting system. Additionally, the 3D data generated was helpful for positioning the lowest plane as well as the different attachment points to the monocoque. 

Scan of the shifting control cylinder

“All in all we are very happy with the sponsorship and we will keep on working by scanning new parts for positioning or rebuilding and improving existing parts,” a team representative told us.