Our voice of business this month is:
Rob Lewis, Director of Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub and Managing Director of TotalSim Ltd.
The Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub (SSEH) was created by Aerodynamics and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) experts TotalSim. Through their extensive experience working with Team GB and other elite athletes, they discovered a need for affordable, bespoke, sports engineering tools. For decades, aerodynamics has been used in elite sports to improve performance. However, in the past the use of wind tunnels for athletes has been prohibitively expensive as they’ve mainly been designed for the requirements of motorsport, aerospace and automotive sectors.
The Sports Performance Wind Tunnel at SSEH has been designed to minimise running costs and therefore become a regular training tool for athletes. It can run tests at almost every wind speed and angle an athlete can encounter as well as offering real-life simulator experience where wind speed increases automatically as pedal power increases. The tunnel, whilst designed for cyclists, also has future development opportunities for winter sports including bobsleigh and speed skaters as well as para-athletes and sprinters.
On a smaller scale, the fabric development wind tunnel based at SSEH is available to hire for those companies who wish to assess the aerodynamic qualities of fabrics, particularly for performance sports clothing. Designed from the ground up to create exceptionally repeatable results in a purpose-built controlled environment, the tunnel is another great research and development tool.
Other services SSEH offer are 3D scanning, whether it be for aerodynamic development, reverse engineering or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) staff at SSEH have many years of experience in scanning athletes from multiple disciplines and have refined a fast and accurate 3D scanning approach.
The support of Buckingham Local Enterprise Partnership with a grant of £2million meant that what started out as an initial project to find a home for a Sports Performance Wind Tunnel could grow into a bigger project to benefit small businesses looking for a presence within the high-tech community at Silverstone Park. The Hub is designed to bring like-minded people into a common community, to help people, teams and companies succeed. At present the Hub is home to seven engineering and technology based businesses who by being based at the Hub makes them perfectly placed to be able to access the facilities here.
The current tenants at SSEH bring a wealth of skills and knowledge to the Hub and through collaboration can provide services ranging from 3D printing to aerodynamic consultancy, bike fitting services and innovation advice.
If you’d like to find out more about basing your business at SSEH or about renting the facilities do not hesitate to contact us on 01327 222830 or info@silverstonesportshub.co.uk
