High-Precision 3D Scanning Enhancing Redesign and Production in Formula Race Car

Production in Formula Race Car

As digitization reshapes the automotive industry, 3D scanning has emerged as a critical enabler in design and manufacturing workflows. Recognizing its potential, Dynamics e.V.—a Formula Student team in Germany—turned to SCANOLOGY for industrial-grade 3D solutions to strengthen their engineering toolkit.

About Dynamics e.V.

Dynamics e.V. is the Formula Student team from the University of Regensburg. Comprising around 80 passionate students, the team applies advanced engineering principles to design, build, and compete with high-performance race cars at the prestigious Formula Student competition.

Project Challenges

For this project, the team focused on their CFRP monocoque chassis—a lightweight yet strong one-piece shell that integrates the driver’s seat. The monocoque plays a vital role in vehicle safety and structural integrity, making its precise inspection crucial. The team needed a reliable way to monitor production-related changes and ensure that internal fastening points and spatial constraints were accounted for.

While CAD models provided an accurate representation of the exterior geometry, they lacked detailed information about the inner surfaces. This gap hindered redesign, assembly optimization, and validation of manufacturing accuracy.

Moreover, relying solely on CAD models risks overlooking deviations that occur during production. Without accurate scan-to-CAD comparison, misalignments and geometric errors could remain undetected until late in the assembly stage, potentially leading to costly rework or compromised performance.

To overcome this, engineers required precise digital capture of the monocoque’s interior.

Key Measurement Challenges:

Dual requirement: Both the outer shell and the inner cavity needed to be measured.

Restricted access: The inner cavity was just 0.35 m × 0.35 m, making scanning and tracking extremely difficult.

Complex features: Small fastening points and detailed geometries required high-resolution capture, as these directly affected assembly and performance.

Seamless alignment: Data from inner and outer scans needed to merge into a coherent digital twin.

Limits of Previous Measurement Methods

Traditional inspection methods, such as manual measurement with calipers, templates, or limited-contact CMMs, proved insufficient for this application. These methods are time-consuming, lack flexibility, and cannot capture the full complexity of CFRP structures. For the inner surface, manual techniques are often impossible due to spatial limitations. 

The Solution: SIMSCAN-E and NimbleTrack

To meet these challenges, SCANOLOGY deployed two complementary solutions: the SIMSCAN-E handheld wireless 3D scanner and the NimbleTrack wireless 3D scanning system.

CFRP Monocoque Scanning

The i-Tracker was positioned to maintain line-of-sight with the scanner, providing tracking coverage of up to 3.2 m. This wireless setup enabled full monocoque digitization in a single scan, with high measurement rate up to 4.9 million measurements/s.

For the inner cavity, NimbleTrack’s i-Scanner was operated in scanner-only mode, with reflective markers applied for accurate data alignment. Thanks to its compact, lightweight design, the scanner could easily reach inside the confined monocoque space, capturing detailed internal surfaces.

Car Seat Scanning

For the car seat digitization, the team deployed SIMSCAN-E, the world’s first wireless palm-sized industrial-grade 3D scanner. Weighing just 600 g with dimensions of 203 × 80 × 44 mm, the scanner’s compact size allowed easy handling without compromising performance.

In hyperfine mode, SIMSCAN-E activates 17 parallel blue laser lines, achieving a data acquisition rate of up to 6.30 million measurements/s with 0.020 mm accuracy. This enabled high-resolution capture of the seat’s intricate fastening features and surface details, producing a complete digital dataset suitable for downstream redesign and manufacturing tasks.

Results and Applications

The scanning process delivered a comprehensive digital model of the CFRP monocoque and car seat, enabling the team to:

> Identify and correct production deviations at an early stage.

> Optimize fastening points and spatial configurations.

> Validate manufacturing accuracy against CAD models.

Advantages of SCANOLOGY’s Solutions

Seamless Large-to-Small Integration

From scanning an entire CFRP monocoque to capturing intricate fastening points, SCANOLOGY systems combine large FOV coverage with fine-detail resolution.

Flexible Workflows, One Ecosystem

Whether marker-free or marker-based, SCANOLOGY solutions adapt to different setups—ensuring smooth data alignment and minimal rework.

Data Accuracy You Can Trust

Certified to VDI/VDE standards, our scanners deliver results up to 0.020 mm accuracy, enabling reliable validation, inspection, and reverse engineering.

Conclusion

By incorporating SCANOLOGY’s SIMSCAN-E and NimbleTrack into their workflow, Dynamics e.V. successfully overcame the dual challenges of restricted spaces and large-component scanning. The team achieved a high-resolution, complete digital twin of the CFRP monocoque, bridging the gap between production reality and CAD design.

For motorsport, the payoff is immediate—teams gain agility, accuracy, and speed in an environment where every second counts. For manufacturing at large, it sets the stage for a more connected, data-driven future where digital twins, smart factories, and Industry 4.0 become the standard.