3D Printed Grips Help Korean Archers Win Gold at Tokyo Olympics
Photo by Yoon-Sik Kim / Hyundai Motor Group
With the help of 3D printed grips provided by automotive manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group, the South Korean archery team continued their dominance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The team won gold medals in the men's, women's, and mixed team events at this year's Olympics, bringing the total number of medals won by South Korean archers since 1984 to 103. Hyundai Group has provided technical support to the Korea Archery Association for over three decades, and since the last Rio Olympics, has been utilizing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), biometric information, big data, and 3D printing.
In addition to providing optimized 3D printed grips for archers, Hyundai also uses 3D scanning technology for non-destructive inspection of the team's bows.
The 3D printed grips installed on the bows vary significantly from athlete to athlete, including the required shape and material.
Optimizing performance with 3D printing and scanning
In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Hyundai Motor provided technical support to the South Korean archery team, supplying them with qualified bows and optimized equipment for each athlete.
Hyundai's advanced 3D CT scanning equipment was used to develop a new non-destructive testing model to analyze the team's bows. This technology works by creating 3D model images to measure if the bow has any internal damage during repeated draws. As the bow rotates 360°, the 3D scanner takes tens of thousands of photos to get a comprehensive understanding of the bow's performance.
Hyundai also improved the 3D printed grips it has provided to the team since the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 3D printed grips are customized according to each athlete's hand shape and now offer a wider variety of materials based on the athlete's preferences.
Previously, grips were only made of synthetic resin material, but now they are made of heat-resistant resin, a material that can be quickly customized. PA12 material produced by transnational printing company HP is durable but takes longer to manufacture. The grips also feature newly developed materials, namely a combination of aluminide, aluminum, and polyamide, as well as solid wood and polyurethane, to provide better grip. According to Hyundai Motor, archers Jin-Hyuk Oh and Woo-Jin Kim were particularly impressed with the 3D printed grips. After testing by multiple athletes, the grips were deemed to have excellent usability and were used as the main grips by the archery team during the Tokyo Olympics.
The team won gold medals in the men's, women's, and mixed team events at this year's Olympics, bringing the total number of medals won by South Korean archers since 1984 to 103. Hyundai Group has provided technical support to the Korea Archery Association for over three decades, and since the last Rio Olympics, has been utilizing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), biometric information, big data, and 3D printing.
In addition to providing optimized 3D printed grips for archers, Hyundai also uses 3D scanning technology for non-destructive inspection of the team's bows.
The 3D printed grips installed on the bows vary significantly from athlete to athlete, including the required shape and material.
Optimizing performance with 3D printing and scanning
In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Hyundai Motor provided technical support to the South Korean archery team, supplying them with qualified bows and optimized equipment for each athlete.
Hyundai's advanced 3D CT scanning equipment was used to develop a new non-destructive testing model to analyze the team's bows. This technology works by creating 3D model images to measure if the bow has any internal damage during repeated draws. As the bow rotates 360°, the 3D scanner takes tens of thousands of photos to get a comprehensive understanding of the bow's performance.
Hyundai also improved the 3D printed grips it has provided to the team since the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 3D printed grips are customized according to each athlete's hand shape and now offer a wider variety of materials based on the athlete's preferences.
Previously, grips were only made of synthetic resin material, but now they are made of heat-resistant resin, a material that can be quickly customized. PA12 material produced by transnational printing company HP is durable but takes longer to manufacture. The grips also feature newly developed materials, namely a combination of aluminide, aluminum, and polyamide, as well as solid wood and polyurethane, to provide better grip. According to Hyundai Motor, archers Jin-Hyuk Oh and Woo-Jin Kim were particularly impressed with the 3D printed grips. After testing by multiple athletes, the grips were deemed to have excellent usability and were used as the main grips by the archery team during the Tokyo Olympics.
Hyundai Motor Group provides customized 3D grips made of various materials for each archer and optimizes them. Photo credit: Yoon-Sik Kim
3D Printing at Tokyo 2020
Beyond archery, 3D printed equipment also appeared in several different events at this year's Olympics. More and more athletes are leveraging this technology to gain a competitive edge in aerodynamics, weight, and time savings.
3D printing technology was particularly applied in track cycling. The Italian national cycling team used the Calibry 3D scanner from Thor3D, a Russian handheld 3D scanner developer, to streamline the aerodynamic design of their riders, while sports performance brand Vorteq used Artec 3D scanners to create custom aerodynamic bodysuits for cyclists from five different Olympic teams.
The British cycling team also rode new track bikes designed by global engineering firm Renishaw, Lotus Engineering, and Hope Technology, featuring lightweight 3D printed end-use parts. Additionally, several athletes are expected to wear Adidas's 3D printed optimized running shoes, Futurecraft STRUNG, which feature an upgraded 3D printed 4DFWD midsole, and 3D printed grips were also installed on the pistol of multiple world shooting champion Céline Goberville.
Beyond archery, 3D printed equipment also appeared in several different events at this year's Olympics. More and more athletes are leveraging this technology to gain a competitive edge in aerodynamics, weight, and time savings.
3D printing technology was particularly applied in track cycling. The Italian national cycling team used the Calibry 3D scanner from Thor3D, a Russian handheld 3D scanner developer, to streamline the aerodynamic design of their riders, while sports performance brand Vorteq used Artec 3D scanners to create custom aerodynamic bodysuits for cyclists from five different Olympic teams.
The British cycling team also rode new track bikes designed by global engineering firm Renishaw, Lotus Engineering, and Hope Technology, featuring lightweight 3D printed end-use parts. Additionally, several athletes are expected to wear Adidas's 3D printed optimized running shoes, Futurecraft STRUNG, which feature an upgraded 3D printed 4DFWD midsole, and 3D printed grips were also installed on the pistol of multiple world shooting champion Céline Goberville.
New Hope Lotus track bike launched by British Cycling Association. Photo by Hope/Lotus British Cycling.
Sports performance brand Vorteq collaborated with Luxembourg-based 3D scanner manufacturer Artec 3D to create custom aerodynamic suits for riders.
Combining Artec's Leo 3D scanner, a wind tunnel, and engineering expertise, Vorteq designed one of the "world's fastest" cycling suits. Currently, five different athletes are wearing this bodysuit at the Tokyo Olympics, which is designed to be lightweight, breathable, and significantly reduce drag.
Sam Quilter, Metrology Engineer at Vorteq, said: "Our mission is to help serious athletes, many of whom are already at or near their peak, find those 'marginal gains' that, when you add them up, can really make a difference for an athlete, helping them push past their peak and ultimately win." "Compared to our previous scanners, the Leo gives us immense flexibility. We can practically carry a 'laboratory' with us wherever we go, which is especially important when you need to go to some random places where conditions are not laboratory-like."
Combining Artec's Leo 3D scanner, a wind tunnel, and engineering expertise, Vorteq designed one of the "world's fastest" cycling suits. Currently, five different athletes are wearing this bodysuit at the Tokyo Olympics, which is designed to be lightweight, breathable, and significantly reduce drag.
Sam Quilter, Metrology Engineer at Vorteq, said: "Our mission is to help serious athletes, many of whom are already at or near their peak, find those 'marginal gains' that, when you add them up, can really make a difference for an athlete, helping them push past their peak and ultimately win." "Compared to our previous scanners, the Leo gives us immense flexibility. We can practically carry a 'laboratory' with us wherever we go, which is especially important when you need to go to some random places where conditions are not laboratory-like."
Metrology Engineer Sam Quilter uses Artec Leo to 3D scan a rider. Image courtesy of Vorteq
Artec 3D Scanning
Artec 3D has consistently been shortlisted for the 3D Printing Industry Awards (nominations for this year's awards are still open) – its product line includes Eva, Space Spider, Leo, and Ray scanners, which can be used for a variety of different purposes.
Artec's scanners have previously been used by Marinebedrijf Koninklijke Marine, the Royal Netherlands Navy's material and asset maintenance company, for reverse engineering of parts, and by Triebold Paleontology for the digital preservation of a 26-foot-long Stegosaurus at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The company's scanners have also been applied in the automotive industry for vehicle restoration, and for full-body 3D scanning of dolphins, sharks, and large sea turtles to create custom tracking tags that provide information on migration patterns and the impact of ocean temperatures.
Artec 3D has consistently been shortlisted for the 3D Printing Industry Awards (nominations for this year's awards are still open) – its product line includes Eva, Space Spider, Leo, and Ray scanners, which can be used for a variety of different purposes.
Artec's scanners have previously been used by Marinebedrijf Koninklijke Marine, the Royal Netherlands Navy's material and asset maintenance company, for reverse engineering of parts, and by Triebold Paleontology for the digital preservation of a 26-foot-long Stegosaurus at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The company's scanners have also been applied in the automotive industry for vehicle restoration, and for full-body 3D scanning of dolphins, sharks, and large sea turtles to create custom tracking tags that provide information on migration patterns and the impact of ocean temperatures.
Artec Leo 3D scanner with Artec Studio software showing a scan of a rider at Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub. Image courtesy of Vorteq.
Aerodynamic 3D Scanning
In the world of high-performance cycling, speed is everything, and success often comes down to fractions of a second. On the track, cyclists battle wind resistance and drag with every pedal stroke, and it's reported that up to 90% of a cyclist's energy output is used to overcome air resistance, making its reduction key.
Vorteq is leveraging the sport-specific and fabric wind tunnels at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub (SSEH), along with the latest 3D scanning technology, to create custom cycling suits for riders that reduce aerodynamic drag while remaining comfortable, lightweight, and breathable.
Artec 3D's Artec Leo handheld scanner is a key element in the design of the riding suits, digitally capturing the precise anatomy of riders in less than six minutes. The scanner has a built-in touchscreen, a capture rate of 44 frames per second, and is capable of scanning medium-sized objects, including humans, in minutes.
"The rider comes into the wind tunnel with their bike, it gets mounted onto the platform, they hop on, and in just five to six minutes, I can capture two postures of that rider with precise, high-resolution color 3D images," says Quilter. "Basically, that means in ten minutes I'm totally done with that rider, they can go off and do whatever else. I have everything I need to design an ergonomically sound, bullet-fast Vorteq skinsuit. No rescan, not even once."
When creating the bodysuit, Vorteq uses the scan data directly from the Artec Leo, which provides precise body data of the athlete, eliminating inaccurate and imprecise measurements. The scan results are then processed through the post-processing workflow of Artec Studio software, where engineers can carefully inspect the data and eliminate any rare errors or unwanted data captures, such as wrinkles. "From the moment the athlete walks in, we start scanning with Leo, then use Artec Studio for post-processing the scans, then 3D modeling in Geomagic Wrap, and finally exporting the 3D model for creating the bodysuit. The entire process takes about 2 hours in total, which was absolutely impossible in the past, and not even close," Quilter continues. "In terms of the total production time for a bodysuit ready for competition, currently it takes us 2 days, but this gap is narrowing, and our goal is a 24-hour turnaround time, which we are certainly on track to achieve soon."
In the world of high-performance cycling, speed is everything, and success often comes down to fractions of a second. On the track, cyclists battle wind resistance and drag with every pedal stroke, and it's reported that up to 90% of a cyclist's energy output is used to overcome air resistance, making its reduction key.
Vorteq is leveraging the sport-specific and fabric wind tunnels at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub (SSEH), along with the latest 3D scanning technology, to create custom cycling suits for riders that reduce aerodynamic drag while remaining comfortable, lightweight, and breathable.
Artec 3D's Artec Leo handheld scanner is a key element in the design of the riding suits, digitally capturing the precise anatomy of riders in less than six minutes. The scanner has a built-in touchscreen, a capture rate of 44 frames per second, and is capable of scanning medium-sized objects, including humans, in minutes.
"The rider comes into the wind tunnel with their bike, it gets mounted onto the platform, they hop on, and in just five to six minutes, I can capture two postures of that rider with precise, high-resolution color 3D images," says Quilter. "Basically, that means in ten minutes I'm totally done with that rider, they can go off and do whatever else. I have everything I need to design an ergonomically sound, bullet-fast Vorteq skinsuit. No rescan, not even once."
When creating the bodysuit, Vorteq uses the scan data directly from the Artec Leo, which provides precise body data of the athlete, eliminating inaccurate and imprecise measurements. The scan results are then processed through the post-processing workflow of Artec Studio software, where engineers can carefully inspect the data and eliminate any rare errors or unwanted data captures, such as wrinkles. "From the moment the athlete walks in, we start scanning with Leo, then use Artec Studio for post-processing the scans, then 3D modeling in Geomagic Wrap, and finally exporting the 3D model for creating the bodysuit. The entire process takes about 2 hours in total, which was absolutely impossible in the past, and not even close," Quilter continues. "In terms of the total production time for a bodysuit ready for competition, currently it takes us 2 days, but this gap is narrowing, and our goal is a 24-hour turnaround time, which we are certainly on track to achieve soon."
Designing and fabricating Vorteq skinsuits. Image courtesy of Vorteq.
Using Artec Leo, Vorteq can also 3D print anatomically precise mannequins of athletes, which can be used to create bodysuits for them without the need for fittings. With the mannequins, Vorteq can customize a bodysuit for an athlete, test multiple fabrics and styles in the wind tunnel, and produce the bodysuit within a few hours, then deliver it to the athlete's doorstep. This process currently takes less than two days, but the company hopes to reduce the time from 3D scanning to completion to 24 hours in the future.
"For example, we can wind tunnel test fabrics located only on one arm using a full-size mannequin to understand how various fabrics and patterns affect drag reduction," explains Quilter. "This is where marginal gains really come into play. Because in the wind tunnel, a real rider will move, even slightly, which affects the results. With a real rider, you can never get the same precise measurements as with a completely stationary mannequin, where the only variable changing is the fabric being worn." Previously, Vorteq only worked with Olympic teams and other elite athletes, but since early 2020, the company's custom cycling suits have been available to cyclists of all experience levels, helping them achieve optimal performance.
"For example, we can wind tunnel test fabrics located only on one arm using a full-size mannequin to understand how various fabrics and patterns affect drag reduction," explains Quilter. "This is where marginal gains really come into play. Because in the wind tunnel, a real rider will move, even slightly, which affects the results. With a real rider, you can never get the same precise measurements as with a completely stationary mannequin, where the only variable changing is the fabric being worn." Previously, Vorteq only worked with Olympic teams and other elite athletes, but since early 2020, the company's custom cycling suits have been available to cyclists of all experience levels, helping them achieve optimal performance.
Vorteq mannequin components, ready for assembly and wind tunnel use. Photo courtesy of Vorteq.
How 3D Printing Boosts Olympic Performance
Previously, several Olympians have adopted 3D printing technology to create personalized equipment for benefits such as time savings and weight reduction. For example, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's 3D printed running shoes were showcased at the last Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and Adidas and 3D printer manufacturer Carbon's latest 3D printed 4DFWD midsole is currently being worn by several athletes at this year's Tokyo Olympics.
Previously, the French Cycling Federation has used 3D printing to deploy customized handlebars to improve aerodynamic efficiency, and global engineering firm Renishaw has partnered with Lotus Engineering and Hope Technology to design a new track bike for the British cycling team. Recently, the Italian national cycling team revealed that they used Russian handheld 3D scanners to improve the aerodynamics of their bicycles in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics.
Previously, several Olympians have adopted 3D printing technology to create personalized equipment for benefits such as time savings and weight reduction. For example, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's 3D printed running shoes were showcased at the last Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and Adidas and 3D printer manufacturer Carbon's latest 3D printed 4DFWD midsole is currently being worn by several athletes at this year's Tokyo Olympics.
Previously, the French Cycling Federation has used 3D printing to deploy customized handlebars to improve aerodynamic efficiency, and global engineering firm Renishaw has partnered with Lotus Engineering and Hope Technology to design a new track bike for the British cycling team. Recently, the Italian national cycling team revealed that they used Russian handheld 3D scanners to improve the aerodynamics of their bicycles in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics.
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3DMart offers more than just 3D printing, we provide three major contract manufacturing services: "3D Printing Service", "3D Scanning Service", and "3D Spatial Scanning Service"!!
Follow our fan page, don't miss new information:
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