In this week's episode of the McLaren Tech Club, Wes Jacklin - Plant Director at MCTC, describes how to build the carbon fibre monocoque that sits at the core of every McLaren.
I just love how the Brits seem to compare everything to the weight of a double-decker bus -- almost as if there's no other standard measurement... "How much does your minature Poodle weigh exactly? Relative to a double-decker, I mean."
That's secret thing is stamping, and the process used is called RTM. For those who are interested in the "technique" Amazing car, amazing company, love it.
@@electricaviationchannelvid7863 I don’t remember what they did for the i3 but I think there is no other method as viable as Stamping and RTM for automotive reinforced plastic parts. In the future maybe they will use automated fiber placement. RTM is a fast but fastidious process, and the resin to fiber ratio isn’t quite as good as prepeg. That why I think the futures supercars will be done with AFP. The good thing about RTM is beautiful parts, time saving, automation and reliability, that’s what you want for a i3.
@@electricaviationchannelvid7863 Exactly. Although it wasn't quite a monocoque as is here. They had a frame on skateboard design where the lower aluminium frame took some of the chassis loads. The RTM experience led BMW to produce 7 series roofs and pillars which use wet pressed carbon parts. Not quite RTM. Big hats off to BMW, they tried to get advanced composites usage to the next level of volume production rather than at the niche/low volumes that has plagued composite usage to date.
When you said "Sheffield" the first thing that popped in my mind was not McLaren the car company, it was Def Leppard the rock band. I have been following McLaren from all the way back to Bruce McLaren, Racing, and then his first Supercar. It was a sad day in 1970 when Bruce died in a tragic freak accident. Your company is the first hypercar manufacturer. Your first product was and still is one of a kind. Thank you for honoring Bruce's legacy.
Awesome, thanks. I was just thinking yesterday how cool it would be to see the whole process. I'd love to see how the 2D parts become 3D parts. Hopefully someone will document that in the future once it isn't so new and secret.
this isn't really new and secret. What they're doing is literally cutting the desired shape, layer it in a pressurized mold while injecting resin. There are multiple videos online showing how to do it. The "secret" to McLaren is their pressurized molds. The traditional low tech way, which is extremely labour intensive, is to have a mold, you lay the carbon on top, cut excess, vacuum bag it while injecting resin, you can stop here, or put it in an autoclave, which is a pressurized oven, you leave it in there to cook and voila.
@@gwot pressurized molds. So its a autoclave without the heat? or is it more like a stamping press? I assume everything is laid wet into the final mold and pressurized again?
@@Ckcdillpickle it achieves the same result as an autoclave in terms of pressure, and if by stamping press you mean something like a hydraulic press, then yeah, it's pretty much the same thing, they both apply pressure, just by different means. What McLaren is doing is just 2 molds clamped together really tightly while injecting resin into the mold with laid out raw carbon inside. So they don't lay it wet, and it's done in one step.
@@gwot They do it like every other one making carbon monocoques, basically prepreg into heated molds - put under vacuum, then thrown into a auto-clave where it undergoes more heat and pressure.
the upper part of the side lower sill on either side of front driver & front passenger side door could be a bit thinner, more streamlined in tune with the design architecture . . . that'll blend seamlessly with the rest of the McLaren carbon fiber monocoque chassis . . .
very cool idea however I have to be that asshole and say that while carbon foam is a good enough insulator to put on the bottom of a re-entering spaceship, its structural properties are... well... very foam-like
@@seagie382 yes but one could use electricity and heat to get a similar effect out of carbon fibers that are loose the bond is weak but iv had some luck making core structure this way with thinned epoxy. The thinned epoxy is critical for it though and you have to make small layers that bond together into the core of the final structure to do it and honestly PVC foam is so light that it's a very small difference for alot more effort. I do wish they had someone a bit better versed in composites rather than business in the vid but I actually work with the stuff so maybe I'm an odd ball
I believe the answer is at around the 3:19 mark. They seem to be putting together multiple preform shells in a mold that form those hollow parts of the chassis when the resin is added. I wonder how strong a chassis like that is. From what I recall during my time studying composites, carbon fiber is used as a reinforcing material for resins. It is far stronger and stiffer than steel, but the strongest resins I am aware of is far weaker. Since the preforms are bonded together by this resin, there will be gaps in-between preforms where only the resin keeps it together, making it more susceptible to breaking. Is a chassis like that able to handle crashes(or even loads from the road, engine, etc) as effectively as steel or aluminum? Maybe there is an alignment trick I can't wrap my head around that distributes those loads in a way that affects those gaps less. Though that's just my lack of experience with this stuff talking.
This makes me wish that Mclaren would simplify their lineup of cars. They should be the absolute pinnacle of sports car quality and engineering. No more one off weirdos like Speedtail. Just a single model for each tier they have developed. Interested to see their next generation sports series. 6 cylinder hybrid.
The Speedtail is a tribute to the legendary F1. McLaren actually have a heritage to honour unlike your 10 other "we put overpowered engines in our super car" start ups.
@@TVieira91 The word "affordable" is very relative and I despise the idea that they should focus on lowering prices of their vehicles. They would just be "one more brand on the market". Why not strive for perfection when there are many customers who are willing to pay?
It's most possibly used to heat the ply stacks in certain areas and bond the plies loosely together prior to forming. There is possibly a heat activated binder on one side of the carbon plies. Upon heat exposure (80 - 100 °C) the binder gets tacky. This step is used for safe handling in further processing, since there is a risk of ply misalignment when dry fibre stacks are handled. I guess the stacks are then preformed by diaphragm forming/hot drape forming 3:20 (which is the "secret" process). 2:48 - 3:03 is just for distraction, as this segment shows part assembly rather than the secret forming process ;) The preform is then inserted into the RTM moulds for resin injection and resin curing. It is a standard process to use preforms for RTM processing. Preforms reduce the risk of fibre wrinkling when the RTM mould is closed. Hope that explains the process to some extent.
@@IEleMenTIx haha for some reason it’s mindbending to see a company like mclaren use I cricut iron that you can pick up fro $150 at Michaels or Walmart
Much longer. The original Mclaren F1s are sought after because of that. They don't rust away. I guess depending on the quality of the resin there might be some discoloration due to uv penetration? (not very sure) but not detrimental to the actual structure I suppose.
Because Ferrari likes to stick to the old ways. Mclaren is constantly pushing for state-of-the-art technologies and materials. I hope your comment is not you doubting that carbon fibre is an amazing material.
"Ferrari" has the highest profits margin among all supercar manufacturers. Using aluminum alloy on their less expensive models is the way to make more profits. They actually use CF chassis on their most expensive models such like F50, Enzo and LaFerrari.
hahha hes lying, for f1 yes they make as always by hand temp controlled, for buyers they cut cost in every corner lol, he developed nothing! here some reality its simple 3d printer only big for big parts nothing to develop or new hes sweating reality comming. what he afraid to say its 3d printed cause than anyone can make mclaren lol and yes you can 3d print carbon fiber. Also mclaren printer may use sewing type. So they cut cost. which means copy theyr parts build same printer and you will have mclaren. And bang mclaren becomes worthless hahahhahahahah future is so bad for all these corps
We should stop all innovation so that idiots and Chinese can’t copy. That way you can live in a mud hut! If you work harder at school perhaps you could afford a McLaren
