Solar Boat Twente

As Pillen Group, we have been proud a partner of Solar Boat Twente and Solar Team Twente for a couple of years.

Read how our multiple cooperations have fared and what we meant to these two parties as a partner below!

1. About Solar Boat Twente

Solar Boat Twente its team consists of young students who strive to make a positive impact on society by means of their careers. The boat which the team is building in the city of Enschede is an efficient sun-powered motorboat that is raced against other teams with comparable boats each year. The team finds it important that, in the maritime sector, more could be done to reduce its greenhouse emissions. The long-term goals of the team are:

Developing innovative technologies and solutions for our sun-powered boat;
Stimulating companies to innovate more regarding sustainable products;
Showing the world, starting with the people around us and our partners and sponsors, what potential sustainable developments hold;
Reduce our technological footprint to zero.

2. Our first cooperation

Pillen manufactures components for the Solar Boat since 2017. Originally, Pillen was approached to just supply one component. The students within the Solar Boat team needed a propeller to provide the boat with propulsion, but this seemed to be more difficult than originally thought. The propeller had to be manufactured with the use of 5-axes. Luckily, Pillen had the perfect solution, a 5-axis machine (Matsuura MAM 72-35V) on which the components would fit perfectly. The shape of the propeller was converted into a so-called STEP file so that the file could be imported and used on Pillen its systems so that then the milling shapes could be edited using Solid Cam. At the time, it was a new challenge for Pillen to mill with 5-axes along with the use of a new type of software. The idea of the students to get the maximum amount of propulsion out of one propeller was converted in a way that Pillen could work with. Pillen eventually manufactured two propellers successfully. One with three blades and one with two blades.

3. Continuation of cooperation

After this success, it quickly became clear to the students that Pillen could provide a significant contribution regarding the manufacturing of the various components. The next challenge which the students of Solar Boat faced was the gearbox that was placed under the boat its waterline.

This component, once again, was quite complex and after Pillen had somewhat changed the design together with the students to make it manufacturable, Pillen also took on this challenge. The gearbox had to undergo multiple workings like turning, milling, and wire EDM. Teamwork was crucial to let this project be successful and because of this, the interplay between the designer van machining employees arose. The gearbox was eventually manufactured successfully and on time to be used during the testing phase before the race in Monaco took place.

Afterward, small components were manufactured along with some reserve propellers so that these could be used after the race. In the meanwhile, Pillen makes various components for the Solar Boat each year.

4. A personal milestone

A personal milestone of Erik Grevink is manufacturing the components for the Solar Boat Twente; a team of students of the University of Twente. The made components were part of the propulsion of the boat. ‘At first, we were supposed to only make one component, but later it became three. Because the components were developed up to the last moment, we were expected to supply these components in just two weeks.’, Erik Grevink said.

‘The difficulty of this project was the real so-called 3D components. That means that all components had to be programmed with CAD-CAM. Especially 3D approaching these types of components was not a task we were accustomed to. The first samples were also not completely as they were wished for. The manufacturing of the components also did not go without its problems. The delivery kept coming closer and sometimes we became disheartened. However, it is still important to keep your head up and keep going. Eventually, we came to a final result which we can be proud of.

Because the fact that I was intensively engaged within the project, I gained a lot of experience in dealing with these kinds of specific projects. I will remember this project for a long time, partly because my father had passed during the project.

Erik Grevink Solar Boat Twente Pillen Group

I am proud of this project because during the project we had to deal with complex components, which we made possible as a team. Once we were busy, we immediately knew what was expected and this was the only way to supply in such a short timeframe. The people who participated and have worked on this project also saw this as a good challenge and have put in all the effort to make it work.

It is also good to see that we are kept up-to-date regarding the Solar Boat project so that we are able to see how the components are really used and to see the people who are engaged within the project. The video of the trial run was really nice to see.’

That is how we, as Pillen Group, contribute to Solar Boat Twente and Solar Team Twente as partner!