North East-based engineering and design consultancy, Ardmore Craig, is thrilled to have teamed up with British number one bobsleigh driver, Mica McNeill.
The firm teamed up with Mica following a talk at an entrepreneurial event earlier this year where she discussed her career so far and the challenge she faced when her funding was withdrawn by British bobsleigh’s governing body, inspiring her to set up a crowdfunding campaign to get her to the Winter Olympics.
Andy Stevenson, managing director at Ardmore Craig, said: “It’s clear when listening to Mica speak that she is really passionate about what she does, so when we heard about the challenges she was facing with her funding, we identified an opportunity to help.
“Whilst our previous experience has focused predominantly on offshore and industrial projects, our ethos is that we are engineers who love to solve problems. As such, we thought there was a great opportunity to put our expertise to the test within the design of a bobsleigh and its components and came up with the idea of offering the cost-effective manufacture of the runners following an extensive design scope examination.”
As well as providing funding towards Mica’s training and travel costs, Ardmore Craig are involved with component design for the bobsleigh.
Using existing runners as a reference point and with a pair of officially certified blanks, the team has developed the first set of runner profiles in its 3D CAD package, with prototypes having been manufactured using a 3D printer to verify the geometry.
The 3D model will be used to machine the blanks in the North East of England prior to being tested on the ice later this year.
Andy continued: “Our hope is that the further development work and runner designs will support our goal of enabling improvement in Mica’s performance over the course of the winter season and in doing so, also open doors to new challenges for our expert team of engineers.”
To find out more about Ardmore Craig, visit www.ardmorecraig.com or call the team on 01325 344150.