UNDER THE HOOD
HOW F1 TEAMS MAKE VITAL AERO PARTS
In last month’s column we looked at composite materials and investigated the plethora of different fibres, weaves and resins that allow these materials to be accurately tuned to the many different requirements of strength and stiffness required in a Formula 1 car.
While the process of forming metallic components through casting, fabricating, machining and even 3D printing is relatively well understood, the process of manufacturing carbon composite items is somewhat complex, so now we will try and de-mystify some of those complexities.
A composite component will be of one of two distinct forms, either a solid monolithic, relatively thin structure,
