In the past two years, officials of the F1 organizing committee have negotiated with the team to develop a new set of regulations for the 2021 season. In a number of updates to the Formula 1 2021 technical rules, two additive manufacturing aluminum alloy powders A6061-RAM1 and A2024-RAM2 developed by Elementum 3D of the United States were approved for use in the manufacture of racing components.
2021 F1 season approved new 3D printed aluminum alloy powder material
These two high-strength aluminum alloys are compatible with 3D printing and have superior performance compared to traditional forged alloys. Elementum 3D is focused on cutting-edge materials for 3D printing applications, including metals, ceramics and composite materials. Since the metal is prone to hot tearing during solidification, the research on metal materials used in 3D printing is very complicated. The problem in the past was that the stress during cooling caused part defects, which made the rigidity of 3D printed metal parts less than traditional processing methods.
The key to Elementum 3D aluminum powder is its patented reactive additive manufacturing (RAM) process, which can synthesize nano-scale inoculants during 3D printing to form a fine equiaxed grain structure with excellent performance.
Elementum 3D aluminum alloy powder
Now, both A6061-RAM1 and A2024-RAM2 materials have been approved for the F1 2021 season, which will allow the F1 team to take advantage of the agility and design freedom of additive manufacturing technology. Several changes to the F1 regulations are aimed at achieving economic sustainability without sacrificing the sport’s competitive and ornamental features. The F1 Organizing Committee assessed that additive manufacturing is one of the ideal technologies for maintaining costs and continuous innovation.
In addition, the Formula 1 technical regulations also list the following approved 3D printing materials: AlSi10Mg, AlSi7MG, Al Cl-30AL, A20X, Scalmalloy, titanium grades 1 and 2, Ti6Al4V, Ti 5553, Ti 6242, steel alloys 316, 304, MS1, 15-5PH, 17-4PH, 300M, 4140, copper alloy without beryllium, Inconel 625, Inconel 718 and cobalt-chromium alloy.