Leave it to Steeda Motorsports to be ahead of the rest in applied 3D scanning technology. Already owning a 3D scanner from renowned company EMS, the company wanted to have it’s 2012 Mustang Boss 302 intake scanned so as to better fit it and manufacture it. Thanks to EMS the problem wasn’t a mountain but just a little bump in the road.
The 2012 Mustang Boss 302 Intake is one of the premium aftermarket Ford performance parts and accessories provided by Steeda Motorsports. Ford brought back the engine that is based on the new 5.0 Liter engine. This new Boss produces 444 horsepower and around 380 Lb-ft of torque. To achieve this Ford utilizes CNC ported heads and revised camshafts and what is called a high flow “runners in the box” intake from the 302R racecar. The problem was that the cold air intakes and other parts for the new engine that Steeda wanted to offer needed upgrading and the only way to do it was to design new parts but the new Boss intake manifold was too complex in its shape. Room under the hood is premium so this brought about a challenge.
Thanks to EMS, Steeda showed up with more accurate 3D scanning technology. Steeda wanted EMS to scan the Boss intake so that they could then design their parts around this system. Using their high accuracy and high resolution Konico-Minolta Range 7 3D Scanner they had to tackle the next problem which was the intake is very dark in color with shiny aluminum inserts. No task is too tough for the Range 7 3D Scanner for both dark and shiny surfaces. Other scanners can’t do it without first spraying equipment with paint or dust. Steeda didn’t need this to achieve its goals.
Now that the 3D scanning was done, it was possible for EMS to create a solid model of the intake including its mounting points on the engine block as well as the front air intake. RapidForm is what EMS used which is the only 3D scanning software that can create what is called feature based solid model geometry from 3D scanned data.
This is just another of the amazing applications of the new 3D scanning and 3D printing technology available from EMS. To see it work on a product that was designed to revive an old product and meet the challenges head on to reach a successful solution shows that the Sun is still rising on the 3D scanning and 3D printing industry and there’s no stopping it.
