Additive manufacturing and 3-D printing company Stratasys (www.stratasys.com) has announced a new collaboration agreement with Andretti Autosport.

A top performer in IndyCar, Indy Lights, Rallycross and Formula E, Andretti aims to ‘leverage’ advanced FDM (fused deposition modelling) technology and materials to “accelerate design and development of the team’s diverse racing platforms.”

Andretti Autosport COO Rob Edwards said: “We have been looking for the right partner to add 3-D capability to our design and development activities for a while now.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled than to establish a relationship with Stratasys.

"Since the machines they supplied were commissioned, they have been operating at capacity and we look forward to seeing the benefits of our expanded capability on the race track in 2019.

"We will advance both design and production cycles, using both the Stratasys F370 and Fortus 450mc 3-D printers.”

Pat Carey, senior vice-president at Stratasys, said: “We are excited to join the Andretti Autosport family and look forward to working together in the coming years.

"We see that Stratasys high-performance FDM solutions are being increasingly adopted by the world’s top motor-sports teams and manufacturers.

"We believe that our engineering-grade printers and our wide choice of high-performance materials are a perfect fit for the extreme challenges that our motor-sport customers face.”

The Andretti team, led by Michael Andretti, says it will continue to make significant strides in “converting parts via in-house 3-D printing”.

The team starts the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season on the streets of St Petersburg (Florida) on 10 March and continues until September, with 17 rounds of competition.