How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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AeroDynamic
349
Joined: 28 Sep 2021, 12:25
Location: La règle du jeu

How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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i.e. body work, floors.. etc.

I'm specifically talking about the physical manufacturing of them; when the designs have been finalised from the designers and sent off to be physically made.

I'd really appreciate an estimate for the following:

Entire Nose / Front wing
entire Rear Wing
entire Floor
Chasis
etc

and to use a relevant example, how long might it take to do a new floor for the race?

lastly..

how practical is it to simply modify or upgrade small parts of a floor? i.e. the Silverstone upgrade Mercedes did to their cake tins on the floor etc

izzy
izzy
41
Joined: 26 May 2019, 22:28

Re: How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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AeroDynamic wrote:
14 Mar 2022, 15:57
i.e. body work, floors.. etc.

I'm specifically talking about the physical manufacturing of them; when the designs have been finalised from the designers and sent off to be physically made.

I'd really appreciate an estimate for the following:

Entire Nose / Front wing
entire Rear Wing
entire Floor
Chasis
etc

and to use a relevant example, how long might it take to do a new floor for the race?

lastly..

how practical is it to simply modify or upgrade small parts of a floor? i.e. the Silverstone upgrade Mercedes did to their cake tins on the floor etc
Top question. I have an idea autoclave capacity can be a limitation, with the number of parts.

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NicoS
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Joined: 11 Feb 2022, 17:21

Re: How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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Well there are many variables that can influence manufacturing time:

The intricacy of the parts being manufactured.
Thickness of parts.
The curing times and pressures required to fully crosslink the specific resins used.
The amount of post mould machining required.
Any bonding required for inserts into part (Aluminium or Titanium)
Post manufacturing surface treatment.
Skill of the operators / machinists / part builders.

Rodak
Rodak
35
Joined: 04 Oct 2017, 03:02

Re: How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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A big time suck is tooling (molds) to make the parts.

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NicoS
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Joined: 11 Feb 2022, 17:21

Re: How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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Rodak wrote:
14 Mar 2022, 17:01
A big time suck is tooling (molds) to make the parts.
Correct, tooling is extremely costly. (material labour and time)

Henk_v
Henk_v
86
Joined: 24 Feb 2022, 13:41

Re: How long does it take to manufacture Carbon Aero parts?

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The traditional route would be to make a plug (positive), laminate a carbon mold of it (negative) and then laminate/cure the part in the mold.

However I've personally been loosely involved with an array of rapid Production techniques for laminate parts.

One of the most intersting is the development of a resin with similar thermal expansion to carbon that is dissolvable. Its used to 3D print a mold (negative) for lamination, aftershave which the mold can be removed by solvents.

This also makes it possible to laminate more intricate parts with less assembly.

I know several machines were bought by F1 teams.

A second technique is to print a plug (positive), use it for lamination and afterwards dissolve the plug for hollow parts. Sometimes a paper thin plug is printed with intricate lattices and these plug are left in the part.