Back in the day F1 cars were made from materials like steel, aluminium and fibre glass. Then along came John Barnard and the world of composite materials was upon us. But today, FB took a trip to the NEC to visit an exhibition about injection moulding 
Luckily, next door was another hall called MM, MEMS and Nano live UK. What is all this about you may ask. Well, this was a show about micro engineering and prototyping (I have a use for such companies in my day job). As I wandered around many of the prototyping companies admitted to making parts for F1 teams. These included people who make 1/2 scale models of parts for wind tunnel testing and included on their display a wing end plate from a Red Bull and a vent with a turning vane from an '05 Renault.
Not really much of a surprise, although the method used to make these involves using 3D printers and lasers fired into pots of resin. 3D printers, or stereo lithography (SLA) is really cool, it builds up layers of resin 0.5mm thick until you have model of the part. SLS (selective laser sintering) involves firing a laser into the resin which then forms the part.
Model making is nothing new, cars run in wind tunnels have been models for years, although previously an engineer and model maker would often have made them by hand from lumps of plastic, wood, metal and clay. But because F1 cars are prototypes they now make parts for the cars using these methods. So, for example, SLS can be used to form metal parts in hours which would have taken days by old fashioned machining methods and they can control the density and hardness of the part by the metals used in suspension and how the laser forms them.
SLS parts can also include ceramics which make them strong (albeit quite brittle), light and heat resistant. So FB finds himself at a stand which does vacuum metalising. These guys take parts which have been made on SLS machines and then coat them with a 100 micron thick layer of metal which considerably increases their strength. So when you see what looks like a metal part on an F1 car there's a strong chances it probably isn't. These pieces sometimes only last one race.
SLA and SLA are also used to make the moulds the teams use to form the carbon fibre parts as these are often one off's. The mould is formed and then the carbon fibre is manually laid up into the mould before goign off to be cured. The speed that different shape mould scan be made takes hours via SLA so the teams can make minute variations in parts and then test them to death (seriously, they are often tested to destruction).
A seriously fascinating day. Hopefully I will be able to use some of these companies and if I do I'll try and find out more.
BTW, one of the companies I deal with built a full scale model of the Red Bull X1. I asked if I could have it for the garden and they said no
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/254340/
Luckily, next door was another hall called MM, MEMS and Nano live UK. What is all this about you may ask. Well, this was a show about micro engineering and prototyping (I have a use for such companies in my day job). As I wandered around many of the prototyping companies admitted to making parts for F1 teams. These included people who make 1/2 scale models of parts for wind tunnel testing and included on their display a wing end plate from a Red Bull and a vent with a turning vane from an '05 Renault.
Not really much of a surprise, although the method used to make these involves using 3D printers and lasers fired into pots of resin. 3D printers, or stereo lithography (SLA) is really cool, it builds up layers of resin 0.5mm thick until you have model of the part. SLS (selective laser sintering) involves firing a laser into the resin which then forms the part.
Model making is nothing new, cars run in wind tunnels have been models for years, although previously an engineer and model maker would often have made them by hand from lumps of plastic, wood, metal and clay. But because F1 cars are prototypes they now make parts for the cars using these methods. So, for example, SLS can be used to form metal parts in hours which would have taken days by old fashioned machining methods and they can control the density and hardness of the part by the metals used in suspension and how the laser forms them.
SLS parts can also include ceramics which make them strong (albeit quite brittle), light and heat resistant. So FB finds himself at a stand which does vacuum metalising. These guys take parts which have been made on SLS machines and then coat them with a 100 micron thick layer of metal which considerably increases their strength. So when you see what looks like a metal part on an F1 car there's a strong chances it probably isn't. These pieces sometimes only last one race.
SLA and SLA are also used to make the moulds the teams use to form the carbon fibre parts as these are often one off's. The mould is formed and then the carbon fibre is manually laid up into the mould before goign off to be cured. The speed that different shape mould scan be made takes hours via SLA so the teams can make minute variations in parts and then test them to death (seriously, they are often tested to destruction).
A seriously fascinating day. Hopefully I will be able to use some of these companies and if I do I'll try and find out more.
BTW, one of the companies I deal with built a full scale model of the Red Bull X1. I asked if I could have it for the garden and they said no
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/254340/
