My Lotus Elan SE Journey: Restoring ‘Lotti’ with 3D Printing

Discussions with Servane Freneat (Key Account Manager for France) about the gear knob were crucial in finding the best manufacturing process and achieving a result that was as close as possible to a production part.

Xometry: Which parts does Xometry manufacture for you?

Annika Hilgert: Xometry manufactures the aluminium end shields for our hub motors. These virtually seal off the motor from the transmission and the HV cabling. The rotor is also supported by the end shields.

Annika Hilgert: It’s difficult to find a manufacturing partner, especially for complicated parts where tight tolerances are important. That’s why we turned to Xometry last season to help with the production of our end shields for the motors.

Xometry: What impact has the quality of the parts manufactured by Xometry had on the performance of your motors?

Annika Hilgert: The end shields are very important parts that have to be manufactured as accurately as possible to the tolerances. They support the rotor and absorb the torque of the rotor. If these parts were manufactured inaccurately, there would be a risk of bearing or transmission damage.

Xometry: How was your overall experience with Xometry?

Annika Hilgert: Our experience with Xometry has been excellent. The end shields that Xometry manufactured last season arrived on time and fitted perfectly, we even managed to come third in the acceleration race in the Czech Republic with our self-developed motors. We hope that we can continue to improve our performance with the next generation of motors and the new end shields from Xometry.

The main benefit of [working with] Xometry is definitely speed. We had a vast network of vendors in China, which came with its own challenges. We had to manage the vendors and spent a lot of time project managing, QCing, and working through communication challenges. When we approached Xometry, we noticed right away that they gave us a lot of flexibility, especially with our mould tool. Xometry was really in that sweet spot for us. It was helpful to communicate with a partner that really knows engineering and design. The quality and speed from them were just different, which is really important for us because we needed to get the product out this year.

The communication with Xometry is very good! There is perhaps a misconception that Xometry is a web based service, so you get very little human interaction. This is certainly not the case: we have an account manager assigned to us who is very approachable and responsive.

Xometry is one of the best places to source your parts in aerospace engineering.

If it’s not close enough to the reference model, Xometry is very helpful and we get a new one based on our feedback until we’re completely sure that’s the right quality we want. Xometry is always there to help us and is focused on delivering the best possible solution.

There was a noticeable trend of people moving away from buses and trains, instead taking up e-scooters for a sense of freedom and personal space.

The model had to closely resemble the stature of a dwarf red deer, standing at a height of only 1.5 meters, so that the original bones would fit into their corresponding positions within the skeleton and more or less match the surrounding 3D printed bones proportionally. We also had to ensure that the material used to print this model, was safe for museum use, as some plastics are considered a risk due to off-gassing over time, therefore FDM 3D printing PETG was selected as the filament of choice for this.

We were able to work with Zarya Blackwood, to solve any issues we had with the model early-on before we had found a suitable 3D printing company to work with, and once we had contacted and agreed to work with Xometry, any further issues were quickly resolved by their staff before production began.

Cutting away sections of the model in the locations where the real bones would sit and then seeing these bones fit nicely into place was a point within the project where everyone felt that it would be smooth sailing from then onwards – the culmination of effort that was put into this project had paid off.