Renishaw provides Additive Manufacturing support to UK team in bid for America’s Cup 2021
June 28, 2019
The T5 test boat is a foiling mono-hull measuring 22.8 m (75 ft) (Courtesy Renishaw/Ineos Team UK)
Renishaw, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, UK, will provide Additive Manufacturing and precision measurement services to Ineos Team UK, headed by Sir Ben Ainslie as Team Principal and Skipper, as it competes for the 36th America’s Cup in 2021. The British sailing team is based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, and was founded by petrochemical and manufacturing team Ineos.
The America’s Cup, first won by America in 1851, is believed to be the oldest international trophy in world sport. Ineos states that it is making the biggest ever investment in the competition for 2021.
The team will compete for the cup with an AC75 22.8 m (75 ft) foiling mono-hull yacht. To aid the team in building the technologically advanced vessel, Renishaw will supply its products and expertise in the fields of metal Additive Manufacturing, position encoders, manufacturing process control and Raman spectroscopy.
These services will include contributing to the design optimisation and manufacture of metal additively manufactured parts, including structural components; digital position feedback to improve the boat’s performance, including monitoring control surfaces; and material analysis.
The T5 Mast Ball transmits power from the rig into the foiling hull and has been built lighter and stronger by Renishaw using its AM technology (Courtesy Renishaw/Ineos Team UK)
“Renishaw is proud to again contribute our expertise to the British America’s Cup challenge, having supported Sir Ben’s team for the 2017 challenge in Bermuda,” stated Chris Pockett, Renishaw’s Head of Communications. “It means a great deal to us that our past contributions have been recognised and that we will be a key partner for Ineos Team UK, providing a range of innovative solutions and becoming an integral part of its engineering team.”
Pockett continued, “Leading manufacturing technologies are crucial to the performance of the boat. From giving real-time position feedback during racing, to the use of metal Additive Manufacturing for lightweight, highly complex components, we are very excited about the contribution that we can make to the performance of the boat.”
Sir Ben Ainslie, Team Principal and Skipper of Ineos Team UK, commented, “We’re really excited to be working with Renishaw. They’ve been a fantastic partner to us and we’re really looking forward to the challenge to bring the Cup home in 2021 with their support.”
“We chose to work with Renishaw because they have such a breadth of world-class engineering and scientific design knowledge,” added Mark Chisnell, Technology Coordinator at Ineos Team UK. “They are a fantastically resourced company with great facilities and people.”
