Renishaw partnership brings expertise to racing weekend

To encourage young people to consider a career in engineering, the UK Greenpower team at Renishaw partnered with the company’s Spanish subsidiary to race at the RFEDA Racing weekend in Barcelona.

Following their participation in the UK Greenpower F24+ finals, the Spanish Greenpower community invited the Renishaw racing team to take part in the racing weekend. The team, primarily comprising current or recent apprentices and graduates, worked closely with Greenpower Iberica and Renishaw’s Spanish subsidiary, to enable the team to participate and demonstrate their engineering skills to young people visiting the Montmeló circuit in Barcelona.

As part of the racing weekend, the team of drivers and engineers took part in a friendly race against other Greenpower teams around the track to showcase their unique vehicles. The Renishaw Greenpower electric cars are designed and manufactured from scratch by employees in the early stages of their career. The team uses their individual skills sets and a range of manufacturing techniques to develop the car, including features like cycling gears that enable nine-speed gearing ratios to reach greater speeds as well as electronics and communication systems on the cars.

To improve aerodynamics and reduce the weight of the car, team members trialled some new additively manufactured (3D printed) products, such as mirror farings, made in-house at Renishaw’s UK HQ site. In order to participate at the Montmeló circuit, the cars had to pass scrutineering, following which they were awarded best engineered car and best bodywork.

“Our team consists of people from a range of backgrounds, both in and outside of engineering,” explained April Joynson, commercial graduate at Renishaw and a driver for the team. “These types of projects bring our skills together, breaking the bias that careers in engineering are only for men or those with STEM backgrounds.

“Eight of the ten team members that attended the weekend are current or former apprentices and graduates at Renishaw, highlighting how Renishaw encourages students to develop their skills and showcasing the multiple pathways into this industry. Attending this event also gave our team a unique opportunity to meet F4 engineers and take part in events that wouldn’t normally be open to them.”

Victor Escobar, managing director of Renishaw Iberica, said: “After seeing the success of Greenpower racing and its role in STEM outreach in the UK, we were happy to see how both audience members and racers were excited to see the cars in person at the racing weekend as the charity develops teams in Spain. As well as getting young people excited about racing and engineering, the car showcases the company to a new audience. For example, the car now features parts additively manufactured on Renishaw systems to improve performance and aerodynamics, showcasing what we can do at our Solutions Centre in Barcelona.”

During the racing weekend, the Renishaw team also took part in Greenpower career development presentations, had pit access to meet F4 teams racing on the weekend and were able to drive around the famous F1 track. They also met Spanish colleagues at the Renishaw Solutions Centre in Barcelona, which includes Renishaw additive manufacturing systems.

The Greenpower Foundation is an international network of more than 30,000 students who make up 2,100 teams participating in 100 regional, national and international races in the Goblin (9 to 11 years old), Formula 24 (11 to 16 years old) and Formula 24+ (16 to 25 years old) categories. The foundation is dedicated to promoting interest in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) through the design and construction of electric vehicles that participate in races.