Challenge
Dutch student teams develop fully electric superbikes from scratch to preserve motorsports for future generations and compete with established brands.
Solution
Adding 3DEXPERIENCE® Works collaboration, data management and collaboration solutions, including Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS®, Collaborative Industry Innovator, Collaborative Business Innovator to their existing SOLIDWORKS 3D Design solutions.
Results
- Developing electric motors that compete with traditional engines
- Combining and tracking years of student designs to share with all students
- Easily collaborate designs and concepts with partners
- Ability to collaborate on and work together on one part
Sustainable superbikes are an untapped market with zero emissions and a range comparable to traditional motorcycles. Electric Superbike Twente seeks to preserve motorsports for future generations by designing and developing sustainable and future-proof fully electric race bikes from scratch. Highly motivated and dedicated student teams from the University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands contribute to the project each year. Along with designing a superbike, the students want to become professionals in 3D drawing and design.
When Electric Superbike Twente looked for a 3D CAD program for making detailed and realistic designs from scratch along with the ability to work simultaneously on various bike parts, SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE proved to be the perfect combination.
Step-by-Step Progress
SOLIDWORKS enables the design of electric superbikes in stages. Each year, a new team of students brings fresh perspectives and new ideas—and no experience in SOLIDWORKS. The students pick up the full potential of SOLIDWORKS within a few weeks via professional training from local reseller CAD2M.
“From the chassis to the electric engine, every single part of our superbike is being designed in SOLIDWORKS,” notes Rinke Hiel, Chief Chassis at Electric Superbike Twente. SOLIDWORKS enables detailed and realistic designs, so the motorcycle comes to life step by step.
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One of the biggest advantages of integrating 3DEXPERIENCE into SOLIDWORKS is the shared environment and the ability to work together simultaneously on the same part. Before, we had to exchange files manually by saving, sharing, and downloading them locally on our computers
This year’s team of 14 students designed the electric engine along with an innovative and revolutionary battery-swapping system so a depleted battery can be replaced by a fully charged battery at a pit stop. The team next needed to develop and build the newly designed engine in collaboration with partners.
Leveraging the Cloud
All stages of all parts of the bike assembly are stored in the cloud via 3DEXPERIENCE. “One of the biggest advantages of integrating 3DEXPERIENCE into SOLIDWORKS is the shared environment and the ability to work together simultaneously on the same part”, explains Hiel. “Before, we had to exchange files manually by saving, sharing, and downloading them locally on our computers.
The integration of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE saves the team from unnecessary rework and speeds the development process.
Competing with Bigger Companies
Electric Superbike Twente wants to show the world how fun and sustainable their sport can be while competing with established players such as BMW and Ducati. With the development of the battery swapping system, Electric Superbike Twente is one step closer to its goal of participating in the MotoGP, the world’s premier motorcycle championship.
According to Dirk Serlie, Electric Superbike Twente Communications Manager, their goal should be attainable within the next ten years thanks to the speed at which current developments and improvements are taking place. He notes, “For next year, the focus [of the new team of students] will be to get our superbikes on the local racetrack and to achieve impressive lap and split times.”
The fully electric superbike is slowly becoming a reality thanks to the combination of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE.
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