What can wider sectors of industry learn from Formula One’s extensive use of composites? This question was discussed in a recent paper presented to the Composites UK 2010 Annual Conference by Mark Preston, former Formula One Technical Director and Formtech Composites’ Managing Director.
With composites making up over 80% by volume of a Formula One (F1) car, many of Formtech Composites customers were keen to understand how knowledge of the substitution of composites could be applied to their own industries in order to deliver competitive advantage in the drive for lower weight and increased efficiency.
With this in mind, Formtech Composites’ Mark Preston began work on understanding why Formula One has used composites so extensively, as a number of their customers had asked them to explain how the substitution of composites in Formula One could be applied to their own industries, in order to develop scenarios for future strategic development.
“Development of composite structures in F1 takes place at an incredible rate”, says Preston, “in fact we describe it as a ‘Prototyping Competition’ with an average of five of any one part being made before moving on to a new design iteration!” However, this rate of development does come with an associated risk.
It is a commonly held belief in most industries that the acceptance of risk taking and possible failure drives innovation. In order to mitigate this risk, F1 has developed techniques for the certification and health monitoring of components. One example of this is Acoustic Emission that Formtech specialises in, with Preston having developed its use over years of working in F1. Formtech Composites is working on using these techniques in other industries to increase confidence of composite substitution.
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Click here to read the full paper.
