Ricardo invests in manufacturing for car transmission systems

Ricardo has commissioned a state-of-the-art £500k Gleason GP300ES Gear Shaping Machine as part of a strategic multi-year investment programme to consolidate Ricardo’s position in transmission design and manufacturing for worldwide premium motorsports and supercar customers.

This highly advanced manufacturing centre incorporates a totally new shaping head featuring a backlash-free direct drive for the cutter spindle.

With the appropriate software, additional generating cutter rotational motion required for helical gears can be superimposed electronically on the spindle rotation, making it suited for the manufacture of some of the most advanced transmissions systems demanded for motorsport and high-performance supercars.

Ricardo’s strategic investment in its manufacturing capability also includes investing in new planning and scheduling software, which was rolled out at the start of 2018.

These and other investments aim to drive efficiency and quality benefits for the company’s advanced transmissions customers, including famous luxury, performance and motorsports firms such as Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin, Bugatti, McLaren, Bentley and Ford.

Ricardo Performance Products MD Mark Barge said: “The commissioning of our new state-of-the-art gear shaping machine is the latest milestone in our strategic development of our performance manufacturing business.

“Ricardo is one of the few premium transmission manufactures to be able to offer a fully integrated manufacturing and engineering capability, from concept design to in-house manufacture and heat treatment.

“Through our continued investments we are ensuring that our facilities and engineering capability continues to meet and exceed the most exacting standards required by our global customers both today and into the future.”