The Cardboard Box Company raced for superhero glory on Sunday 12th July 2015 at the Red Bull Soapbox Race in a Lego Batman-themed car built with two Zünd digital cutting machines.
The team from Accrington-based Cardboard Box Company competed in the event as You Gotham Be Kidding Me – one of only 70 teams selected from hundreds of applications – at London's Alexandra Palace, with coverage being shown on Dave.
Normally used in the design of packaging, The Cardboard Box Company's Zünd G3 L3200 and Zünd PNXL3000 were instrumental in the creation of the soapbox car's shell of cardboard blocks.
"People go crazy on different themes for their cars for the Red Bull Soapbox Race, but we decided on Lego Batman," explains Lee Mansfield, IT Manager at The Cardboard Box Company.
"The design was an exercise in trial and error. Our CAD designer Kris Howson used the Zünd cutting systems to create and cut the pieces to build a replica of the Lego Batman Batmobile, which were then fixed to the metal frame using hot-melt glue.
"For the final version, we printed the pieces on our Inca Spyder wide-format printer and cut out the pieces with the Zünd's user registration application. On top of that we had wings, flame-throwers and battery-powered flashing lights, plus the braking and steering mechanism needed to negotiate the downhill race with ramps and jumps."
As well as the car itself, the You Gotham Be Kidding Me members were dressed as Lego Batman characters, with costumes also made using the Zünd machines.
"We built cardboard suits, complete with heads and bulky Lego-like legs," says Lee Mansfield, AKA The Joker. "It was quite tricky as we're all different sizes but they looked really good."
He adds: "Red Bull checked in now and again to see how we were doing and were really impressed by what we've done. They also sent us batches of Red Bull to keep us going over the past couple of months of designing and building the car!"
Soapbox fans can follow You Gotham Be Kidding Me's journey to London online, via www.facebook.com/yougothambekiddingmesoapbox, www.twitter.com/legosoapbox and www.redbullsoapboxrace.com/uk/en/team/you-gotham-be-kidding-me.
For further information on Zünd digital cutting equipment or to book a visit to Zünd UK's demonstration suite, please email sales@zund.co.uk or call +44 (0)1727 833003.
