Manufacturing an F1 car

[Matt_Uk]

hi people. i'm a college student in Leeds, north east England and i'm writing an essay for my Design and Technology coursework on Formula 1 cars. one of the areas i need to cover is manufacturing such as how the bodywork, suspension and monocoques are made and why they are made from the materials that are used (i.e. - mostly carbon fibre). any information that can be supplied would be greatly appreicated

[Steven]

Well the why and how for carbon fibre could be solved by reading the 'Carbon Fibre' article on this site. Have done quite some research to write it myself, and it should get you along. Main advantages of carbon fibre are the directional strength and it's weight. Furthermore it's non-flammable.
That's about it, reasons why this material is not used in engines and some other parts of a car are mainly regulations and heat resistance.

[Matt_Uk]

thats a great help. thanks a lot! anything else that you might have would also be appreciated but thats great for now

[Monstrobolaxa]

Inspite the fact that carbon fibre doesn't burn....don't forget that deppending on the epoxy resin you're using it might burn....

[chanda]

actually, there are mechanical disadvantages to using carbon fiber aside from the fact that carbon fiber is a composite material that is mostly organic based (can't withstand elevated engine temperatures, any kind of epoxy is organic as well) - carbon fiber, like all fibers are really strong in tension if you pull it along the fiber direction - i.e. its properties are anisotropic - great if you pull along the fiber but poor if you pull normal to the fiber, what manufacturers usually do is to fan out the fiber to make the properties more isotropic. In addition, carbon fiber is not good mechanically under compression which I can imagine an engine block experiences a lot of.