Leybold sponsors Dutch racing team in reaching the top podium position

Leybold sponsored Formula Student Team Delft in its biggest challenge to date, to win Formula Student Germany (FSG) with its latest car, the DUT23. It’s a test of endurance, teamwork, and project management which Leybold is excited to support.

The Delft team raced against around 100 others from around the world, judged not only on their self-build racing cars against several performance tests, but also on having a viable business plan.

To be first over the line Formula Student Team Delft need to design and build the fastest and most consistent car, and one of the biggest challenges is that of weight. The car needs to be as lightweight as possible, so a large portion of the chassis and aerodynamics are made from composites, usually carbon fibre.

These parts are cured under a vacuum environment, and vacuum pumps are an essential part of this process. It’s paramount that the vacuum pumps can create and maintain a very low pressure in the vacuum bags. This allows the carbon fibres to compress better, achieves good strength and stiffness, and significantly decreases the possibility of defects in the final product.

“As part of the sponsorship, Leybold have kindly donated two SOGEVAC 16B rotary vane pumps to the team,” says Moritz Rokitta, chief chassis engineer at Formula Student Team Delft. “We produce most of our carbon parts in-house, so we need our tools and materials, including vacuum pumps, to be reliable and easy to maintain.”

The Leybold SOGEVAC B single-stage oil sealed rotary vane pumps are ideal for this application, offering low cost of ownership will consistent reliable performance. Achieving an ultimate pressure of better than 8 x 10^-2 mbar, the pumps are equipped with an anti-suck back valve at the inlet flange to prevent oil coming back into the inlet line when the pump is stopped and a gas ballast for pumping condensable vapours.

“Leybold are excited to back Formula Student Team Delft in their race to electric, providing them with the vacuum know-how and technology to help the get on the top step of podium and be the winning team in 2023,” says Ian Dorman, general manager at Leybold. “Our vacuum technology enables many aspects of car production, from the materials for improved performance and strength to the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, Leybold is there at every stage.”