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A RACECAR ENGINEERING
Digital Supplement
Current trends in
composite thinking
www.textreme.com
TECHNOLOGY COMPOSITES
Current trends in
composite thinking
With new regulations, the emphasis is on light weight and thermal resistance
hile composites
became a buzz word
in motorsport in the
early 1980s, when
McLaren International technical
director, John Barnard, pioneered
the use of laminated sheets of
carbon fibre in the manufacture
of the monocoque of the 1981
McLaren MP4 Formula 1 car, in
the strict definition of the word,
composites have been in use in
motorsport since the 1950s, in
the form of glass fibre moulded
body panels. Then, in the USA in
the mid-60s, Jim Halls Chapparal
team built Sportscar chassis
from this material. During the
by ALAN LIS
same period in the UK, Marcos
built sports cars for the road and
track based on plywood chassis
structures, a technology later
used in the Protos Formula 2 car.
in later models.
Carbon fibre was first used
in motorsport in the late 1960s,
as reinforcing strands bonded to
TECHNOLOGY COMPOSITES
Pyromerals Pyrosic is a ceramic matrix composite reinforced with silicon carbide fibres, suitable for high temp use
Laying out carbon fibre is a specialist and labour intensive exercise, but processes are improving all the time
TECHNOLOGY COMPOSITES
Formula 1 programme.
In 2010, Formtech
Composites developed a new
rapid prototyping method for the
production of an f-duct for one of
its F1 clients. We call the process
RCTC Rapid Complex Topology
Composites, says Preston. Its
very useful for composite jobs
with a tight deadline and for
situations were conventional
composite manufacturing
processes cant be used.
RCTC involves the threedimensional printing of mandrels
onto which composite material
is laminated before the part is
given a first cure. The mandrel
material is then washed out of
the part before it undergoes a
second cure. Thats a service
we can offer to our customers,
but we typically dont get a call
for it until something has gone
Manufacturing process
While composite manufacturing
techniques have evolved over
time as the technology has
found wider use in different
industries, the low volume /
high performance requirement
of motorsport means that in this
sector much of the composites
process is still manual. Typically,
materials are laid up by hand in
custom-made tooling prior to
being pressurised and vacuum
bagged in an autoclave. However,
techniques such as filament
winding and out of autoclave
processes such as resin transfer
moulding (RTM), and pultrusion,
are being evaluated.
In Formula 1, filament
winding is principally used in
the manufacture of pressure
vessels such as the air bottles
used to power pneumatic engine
valvetrains, although one team
7/1/11 13:51:07
Design
Pattern & pre-preg mould tool manufacture
R & D prototypes
Autoclave cured component manufacturing
Machine Jig/fixture design & manufacture
Composite machining
Laminate instruction manual production
NDT/Phased array Inspection
CMM Inspection
Markets
w
w
w
w
w
w
ISO9001/2008
ISO14001/2004
BSOHSAS 18001/2007
Investors in People
The Retrac Group, All your composite manufacturing requirements under one roof
were
driving success.
At epm:technology we continue to drive
our clients across the nishing line, where
others have failed.
A combination of industry know-how and a can-do attitude, means
we constantly push the very boundaries of composite technology.
We apply this philosophy to all our customers from motorsport
right through to aerospace.
epmtechnology.com
TECHNOLOGY COMPOSITES
The Audi R18 tub crashed by Mike Rockenfeller at Le Mans in 2011. Despite the lightweight construction,
it survived a high-speed impact intact
Although three-dimensional
woven composite materials
are currently banned by the
F1 technical regulations,
techniques such as z-pinning
are permitted (although this is
usually employed as a remedial
measure when a job has run into
trouble). Increasing the interlaminar capability of the material
by z-pinning can be particularly
useful on a part such as a roll
hoop, though it is time consuming
and currently quite difficult to