Challenge:
Facilitate the production of the proposed NASCAR NextGen chassis (approximately 250-300 per year), within extremely tight tolerances and torsional stiffness specifications for front, mid, rear clips, as well as various related parts/pieces. As important as the production facility was the establishment of a quality control and inspection process. Lastly, was the creation of a “repair” process, for those chassis components that can be repaired.
Technique Chassis faced competition for this contract from nearly 20 companies to meet chassis requirements at a cost-effective price to teams.
Solution:
With significant investment, Technique Chassis proposed that they would quickly and efficiently set up a chassis manufacturing facility in Concord NC, using the combination of approximately 50% manual welding / 50% high-tech automation. They committed to recruit and hire the most qualified personnel to operate the facility. They showcased their detailed and established inspection process, ensuring all machined components will be CMM checked (±0.5m) and have layout data sheet supplied. Use Romer arms to scan and measure each chassis to verify that all components are in within tolerance were proposed. For chassis repair, Technique offered to incorporate it’s high-tech scanning of a damaged chassis component to determine the cost/time benefit of a repair versus a replacement.
Outcome:
Technique Chassis won the bid from NASCAR, and began operations in the spring of 2020 by investing in a 10,000 square-foot facility (Concord NC) as well as the critical high-tech equipment. Simultaneously, they recruited and hired the best-of- the-best within the engineering, welding, automation and racing worlds. As promised and on schedule, Technique Chassis delivered the first NextGen chassis to NASCAR on June 15, 2021.