CFRP and other composite materials have made great strides in industry and product development in the last 30 years. Their weight and strength properties, in particular, offer many mechanical and performance benefits for those developing transportation solutions whether it be in the automotive, aerospace, marine or rail sectors.
However, it could be argued that aesthetically, things have reached a bit of a dead-end with the appearance of non-painted carbon fibre. The sight of shiny black 2x2 twill carbon weave has become somewhat universal when OEMs want to demonstrate the high-tech engineering credentials of their products to potential customers.
This is where Total Composite Solutions (TCS) believes it can offer the market something distinctly different. As well as supplying the epoxy resins, vinyl esters, fibre reinforcements, prepregs and structural adhesives, it also offers a range of aesthetic carbon fibre products designed to offer a wide variety of visual options for surfaces consisting CFRP.
TCS’ managing director, Andy Pointon explains: “We can offer an infinite range of materials to make a car, for example, look truly individual. We have the flexibility and the capability to offer everything from weaving names, logos or serial numbers into the carbon fibre or weaving precious metals such as gold into the pattern to give a distinctive finish or add colour. The range of what we can achieve is huge. From a design perspective it means our clients can offer something really bespoke to their customers whilst maintaining the mechanical integrity of the vehicle.”
High speed collaboration
It was this flexible design capability that meant TCS was an ideal partner to work with Brabham Automotive on developing individually tailored versions of its new BT62 race car. Unveiled in May 2018, the design of the Australian-built supercar draws on the marque’s long motorsport heritage to produce an out and out track car weighing just 972kg, powered by a 700bhp V8 engine. However, the company also has a philosophy of wanting to offer each owner of the estimated £1.2 million high performance speedster as much cosmetic exclusivity as possible.
“Brabham has a high value car, with a high-end client base,” Pointon comments. “If you are going to spend more than £1m on a car then understandably you want a product with a degree of individuality that looks nothing like anything else on the road or track.”
The desire to develop the bespoke options for the BT62 has increased since Brabham announced that is also going to develop road legal versions for its customers.
“Brabham wants to be in the position to say to each customer, ‘we have many individual options of carbon fibre materials and finishes available; how do you want your car to look?’. However, it’s critically important to Brabham, and to us, that the car maintains as much of its track car DNA as possible. It’s really a question of designing materials that give individuals choice, but maintain optimum function and form.”
It’s still early days for the project. TCS is currently working with Brabham on developing the specialist materials that will be used on future BT62 cars.
“We are going through the initial stages of selecting the materials and carrying out moulding trials now the car is in mainstream production with the first car being delivered in Q3 2019,” Pointon says.
Earlier the better
Being involved early on in development projects is TCS’ preferred approach to working with its clients. With more than 100 years of composites experience amongst the team, TCS is proud not only of the materials it supplies, but of its engineering know how and capability. Aside from automotive, the company has extensive experience in working in the aerospace, marine, medical, energy and consumer sectors developing composite material solutions.
“We approach each project not just from a material supply point of view, but more importantly from a solutions perspective,” Pointon asserts. “When we collaborate with OEMs we like to work right at the front end of a project and take on as much of the composite complexity for them as we can. We have the engineering knowledge to work with OEM designers on their initial ideas and offer the variety of raw materials that may be required. We can offer design input, produce prototypes with our manufacturing partners and source manufacturing capability if it’s needed to take the whole project to full commercialisation. Composite materials and production processes are still a puzzle to many in industry, and we believe our expertise offers the market great benefits.”
It’s this expertise, combined with new more visually interesting materials, that TCS believes offers an exciting future for all composite applications.
“Fundamentally a carbon fibre part for whatever application is a simple concept,” Pointon explains. “You are moulding a shape or component that could be used on a car, a plane, a boat or even a prosthetic limb, it’s just a question of the different specifications and technical requirements. For TCS the aesthetic developments with carbon fibre are very appealing. They can bring added value to a brand. This can apply to any sector whether its high-end automotive, luxury yachts or an aircraft interior. If we can get designers to understand the variety of finishes and appearances that we can provide, we believe that can help them push some really interesting new products into the market.”
Faster fast cure
And TCS is also working with major manufacturers developing materials and processes that will help the wider uptake of composites in high volume industrial markets.
“Naturally manufacturers want to make things faster and cheaper, so even though the technology changes, the drivers behind that new technology remain the same. Carbon fibre will definitely be a continuing part of more mass volume car production. Probably in tandem with electric vehicle development due to its strength and weight benefits. However, it will be used in conjunction with many other materials. We are working on faster production routes for composite such as snap cure (hot in/hot out) prepreg and smarter, total process methods. This applies not only in the automotive sector but also in aerospace.”
However, when it comes to high-end automotive projects, the partnership with Brabham Automotive is a clear demonstration of the confidence shown in TCS’ composite capability.
“It’s a really exciting time for both companies and we are very proud to be associated with such an iconic name in motorsport as Brabham,” Pointon concludes. “We see a great strategic alignment between our companies in terms of direction, values, drive and a desire to bring the absolute best in performance to the market. The future vehicle builds will be ground breaking and TCS will be working closely with Brabham to elevate its client choice experience.”
