How Unic Transmissions and Ovako IQ-Steel lead the future of motorsports

Located in Säffle in southwest Sweden, Unic Transmissions is a highly specialised workshop developing market-leading transmission components for high performance markets.

The company is primarily known for its production of bespoke mechanical components for race- and sports-cars that are designed to withstand the extremely high demands of these applications. These include drive shafts, a vital drivetrain component that typically needs to be replaced regularly in motorsport vehicles owing to the high loads they’re subjected to. Unic also produces gearboxes and transmissions systems that withstand the high stresses of race conditions to ensure performance and safety.

With a renowned reputation for crafting high quality components, Unic Transmissions supplies key parts to several motorsport teams, both in Sweden and overseas. This includes those participating in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, with the 2022 championship winner Johan Kristoffersson using drive shafts manufactured by Unic Transmissions and made from Ovako steel.

The company also supports other applications, including the supply of drive train and components to several motorsport teams as well as other customers such as Koenigssegg and X Shore, the Swedish boat company.

Increasingly demanding applications

For high performance race cars to withstand the intense physical demands that they’re subjected to, the integrity of their components is a leading priority. Therefore, the highest level of quality is critical, down to the finest detail.

“You need good designs made from good steel. A tiny imperfection or inclusion in the steel can make all the difference in a component failing or not,” explains Mats Karlsson, Owner and Founder of Unic Transmission.

“Drive shafts are subjected to heavy loads, so you need to have the best products. If you look at world class rallycross competitions, several key components need to be changed frequently because of the shock loading. Equally, if any transmission component starts to crack then the whole transmission can fail. You therefore need extremely high strength and minimal impurities in the steel.”

These characteristics will remain critical in cars of the future – applications which put even greater demands on the performance and weight of transmissions, as indicated by current trends in electric car development.

“It turns out that race conditions in electric vehicles are even harder on drive shafts than combustion engines,” Karlsson continues. “Here, there’s a lot of torque and power, the batteries make the cars heavier, and the wheel speed is not limited by the drive train.

“If an electric rallycross car comes to jump and the driver is at “full throttle”, suddenly you can get high speed rotation of the wheels then back down again when it lands. That creates a huge load on the whole drive train – and the effect is bigger because of the weight of the batteries. So, we’re talking about far greater shock loads for some types of electric vehicle.”

Combatting issues with component enhancements

Under these pressures, transmission components are much more prone to breaking. Hence, to continually enable race drivers to push the boundaries, Unic Transmissions sources the ultra-clean steel to deliver lighter and stronger components that simultaneously optimise performance and mitigate failures.

“Each use case requires different design considerations. For drive shafts there is a simple rule  –  the greater the load, the bigger the diameter of the shaft, yet this diameter is often restricted by the joint ends, ” Karlsson explains, "and more steel means increased weight, therefore, we need high quality steel to make the best use of the limited diameter available.”

However, acquiring the optimal steel is a challenging task.

While the steel needs to be hard, heat treatment can create brittle products. Thus, the alloying mix and heat treatment need to be carefully considered so that they suit the specific needs of the application and maximise performance.

Why Unic Transmissions chose IQ-Steel

Ultimately, in the competitive world of car racing, teams are always looking for ways to reduce the weight of their cars without sacrificing reliability.

Initially, Unic Transmissions’ drive shafts, gears and spline parts were manufactured from standard steel. However, variation in the quality of the material made it more difficult to optimise designs. This is due to the tiny non-metallic particles called inclusions that act as stress raisers where cracks can initiate after many thousands of loading cycles. This eventually leads to fatigue failure, the likelihood of which can be avoided by using clean or ultra-clean steel, which have fewer and smaller inclusions.

For this reason, Unic Transmissions began sourcing Ovako IQ-Steel®, enabling it to produce components that are significantly lighter and more resilient than products manufactured from standard steel.

Isotropic Quality Steel (IQ-Steel) is an ultra-clean steel that has been optimised for fatigue strength and designed to specifically take the strain from higher and more complex loads. Ideal for gears, camshafts and other steel parts, its metallurgy is purer and far more consistent than conventional grades, this enabling the design of far slimmer versions of products without sacrificing fatigue strength or reliability.

Unlocking new opportunities

Indeed, the role that Unic Transmissions components featuring IQ-Steel have played in earning drivers a record number of world rallycross titles has not gone unnoticed.

In late 2022, the firm was able to secure new business in delivering driveshafts to Nitro Rallycross after it broke new ground by rolling an all-electric class of race cars.

“The FIA World Rallycross Championship and Nitro Rallycross are the two biggest rallycross series in the world. So I’m very proud that we’re delivering solutions to both,” Karlsson says.

Such significant and high-profile customers are testament to the performance that Unic Transmissions’ products are delivering, and the unique properties that Ovako’s IQ-Steel are providing to enable the superior quality of its components.

And as racing organisations continue to innovate with the aim of unlocking continual, marginal performance gains, such solutions will only gather momentum.

“Twenty years ago, there wasn’t so much care dedicated to drive shafts, but now everyone knows it’s important,” Karlsson adds. “Competitors are pursuing lightweighting wherever possible to gain an advantage. It’s undoubtedly the future – not only in race cars, but standard electric vehicles too where weight is a greater consideration. Everything takes more energy if a vehicle is heavy. And particularly in motorsport, this will impede results.”