Ahmedshoqi Jama

Engineering Primary Processes

Unit 20 Composite Shaping Processes
Assignment Three

Describe The Shaping Processes used to

manufacture a composite based component (P6)
The use of composite materials in the motorsport industry is one of the
most vital aspects for a teams goal in a season. Composites within
Formula One have been used over 30 years, the composite material that
nearly all teams used now is carbon fibre. According to motorsport experts
and analysers the first use of carbon fibre was being used in the 1980s by
team McLaren who dominated the 80s formula one.
To manufacture a formula one racing car, you would need a good quality
carbon fibre material to have a successful winning vehicle. One great
reason why engineers use carbon fibre for their cars is that, it is 10 times
stronger and half the weight than steel. Many people know that there are
a few limited materials that are stronger than steel. The shaping process
of a single component of a formula one car can take up to three days to
complete. The first steps for producing a race car component is
that the engineer designers prepare designs to choose the
shape of a car body they want.
Once the design engineer has produced an electronical version
of a car body, the fellow engineers manufacture patterns of the
component they are willing to produce. These patterns create a form of
shape the formula one team want. As you can see aside a milling machine
This is a
creating a moulded pattern.
Design
Engineers
The next shaping process of the body component is the
design of a method, basically which is laying up the layers
lay-up of
carbon fibre fibre cloth around the moulded shape this
carbon
could be many layers up to 100 wrapped around the
shape. Once completion of the layup process the shape is sealed and
taken into the vacuum bagging process, vacuum baggings intention is to
suckle all the air from the layered shape the moment its air is sucked out
the vacuum bag engineers will then clamp the layers down forwarding to
the curing stage.
The process of curing involves the carbon fibre shape to be taken into a
AutoClave machine (a strong heated container used for chemical
reactions and other processes using high pressures and temperatures).
The high pressure of normally 180c is used to squeeze the layers

1 | Page
Ahmedshoqi Jama

together, each component of a F1 car spends approximately anything

from 2-8 hours in an AutoClave machine.
Nearly every component of an F1 car is made upon carbon fibre from the
steering wheels to the subspention about 90% of a formula one race car is
made of composites. Carbon fibre is a unique material it is a material that
set McLaren miles ahead of its competitors in the 80s. Agreed upon
many experts for instance Eddie Jordan have said whithout a doubt
Formula One wouldnt be the highest valued sports watched on screen
due to its attractive composites innovation (BBC Interview at Silverstone
2008)
All photos in (P6) courtesy of (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=p_BybubYnpo)

Describe the methods used to manufacture a

composite based assembly (P7)
The glass fibre clothed used in this video is associated with the lay up
process is first put into a laminating machine which draws and coats it
with a high quality epoxy resin to make sure that the cloth will attract to
the material it is going to be put on .Engineers and technictans will then
apply the resin soaked fibre onto the mould in a specific way told where it
will maximise the overall durabillity and strength. This method is done to
ensure that there is low weight added onto the engineered parts but
making sure it stays strong.
The intelligent manufacturers add a foam layer no more or less than an
inch thick is added the small gaps between the upper arch and lower arch
smaller when they are eventually joined. That method is very effective as
it doesnt just make the pieces smaller, it also helps insulate the cockpit
made from a composite material glass fibre, prevent it from cold,heat and
disturbing noises at the same time whithout hardly adding any weight to
the aircraft.
The same epoxy resin is used to coat the edges to fill any voids in any
corners or any other parts of the moulded design. The vacuum bagging
method as I described before in this assignment is used to produce
formula one cars, this shows the importance of this stage as it is used in
nearly every engineered manufactured design in the world.
The vacuum bagging process involves every component to be covered
with perforated plastic just like the a formula one car, a clamp is attached
to the bagging to suckle all the air. Once the air is taken out and
compressed the components are taken to be cured into an AutoClave
sitting around 180 degrees this helps also to stregthen the piece. After
completion of the curing process the upper and lower shells are
assembled together and are placed in ridges along the bottom of the shell

2 | Page
Ahmedshoqi Jama

so they easily slot into position. This makes the assembly stage easy for
the manufacturers.
Many engineers say that the use of ridges make sure that the shells wont
crack if you had to drill holes into the shells however using ridges will
ensure that they would just slide in without an issue. The next stage
involves the parts to be sent back to the AutoClave to cure again for the
last time where the parts between the two shells will stregnthen and
assemble together making sure they dont collapse apart. assebly
methods of creating composite parts of the airplane is very simillar to
those methods used to manufacturing a formula one car.
After the parts are taken out of the AutoClave safely it is sprayed and
coated with epoxy primer then a layer of polyeurafane is added this
makes the parts resistant to weather avoiding corrosion when the plane
finally takes flight. The frame is made upon a composite material called
high grade carbon steel which is 30% more stronger than normal carbon
steel due to it containing more carbon. The non composite material used
would be the shell of the plane as it would be made of a much structured
harderdend plastic. The wings are then added to the body shell also with
the windsheild coming in ya get me bruvva
and inch thick between two layers of the fibre glass cloth. This foam
insulates of several things such as noise,heat and cold. Any voids that
need to be filled are injected with epoxy resin.
The next method that is used to produce the fuselage of an light aircraft
following the sandwich stage is to use the vacuum bagging method. The
vacuum bagging method as I described before in this assignment is used
to produce formula one cars, this shows the importance of this stage as it
is used in nearly every engineered manufactured design in the world. The
vacuum bagging process involves every component to be covered with
perforated plastic just like the a formula one car, a clamp is attached to
the bagging to suckle all the air. Once the air is taken out and compressed
the components are taken to be cured into an AutoClave sitting around
180 degrees .
The next method used to construct a fuselage is the the trimshot method
basically which is taking out the excess fibre glass to create
space for windows and doors. Once the techinitians have
sucessfully trimshotted the excess fibre glass the main
structure is set to be cured for a secound time , now
around 175 degrees. The parts stay in the AutoClave
machine for around 15-18 hours. As soon as the parts are
released from the AutoClave they are sent to the
department of paint , the parts are painted and coated with epoxy primer
and poly europhane which persist weathering and damages.

3 | Page
 Ahmedshoqi Jama

Other workers in the workshop factories test and assemble electrical

components into the airplane that is one of the most important aspects for
an engineer to get absoloutly correct, worst case scenario if an electrical
engineer does a mistake the whole aircraft system could fail leading to an
unfortunate crash.
The use of non composite components used in a light aircrafts structures
are very rare in todays avaition sector. From watching a video on how
aircrafts are made I understood that around 90% of the components were
made from composite materials. The non composite components I
founded from watching this video was the engine base I is made upon
This high
showsgrade
a carbon steel also the wiring and
man using
plumbing used to assemble wings to the fuselage.
the spray up
process
Photographs and facts/information used was
which is
courtesy from :
fairly((https://www.youtube.com/watch?
quick
and not
v=4LhN_T5tGK8)
much
Task M3 :
The use of spray-up would be ideal for use of the construction of racing
yacht. The spray- up method has been used for a very long time in the
manufacturing industry. Spray-up comes with several advantages such as
being economically friendly and being low cost, in this modern era of
engineering nearly every major engineering company uses the method of
spray up.
I believe the use of spray-up is the most ideal and quickest way of
manufacturing a racing yacht. Their comes several advantages with the
spray up process one of those is that It utilizes low-cost tooling as well as
low-cost material systems. What this means is that it isnt that much
difficult to keep hold of the tools and equipments compared to other
processes such as lay-up. The price of getting hold of those in a spray up
process are fairly cheap.
Another main advantage of using spray up is that it is not time consuming,
spray up is a quicker way of manufacturing a product than using lay up which
takes more time and effort everybody nowadays wants something for a bargain
something which includes it being quick and cheap the answer to that process in
a manufacturing industry is the spray up method.

However just like any other thing in world spray up also includes several
disadvanages one of the few disadvantages are spray up process doesnt
cover every aspect of the shape due to your spraying you wouldnt
remember exactly wear you sprayed. One side could be done perfectly
and the other could be rough and unfinished.
Spray Up comes with several health risk as you are using several
chemicals included inside of the resin. You would need to use several

4 | Page
Ahmedshoqi Jama

Protective personal clothing such as face mask, overalls gloves and

goggles. If you accidently inhale the resin it could potentially put you in
serious health risk such as cancer and lung infection therefore the use of
PPE is very essential when working towards spray up.

5 | Page