Engine and gearbox materials

[Vortex347]

Hi all anyone know what various parts of f1 engines and gearboxes are made out:
extractors, rocker casings, pistons, camshafts, gears, clutch etc. The whole deal
Also, why do they only run steel crankshafts? isn't that extremely heavy? Is there no other material that is lighter and possesses the same level of fatigue resistance that fits in the rule constraints?
Just putting some ideas out there

Cheers guys thanks for the help!

[Tommy Cookers]

Steel is the strongest (and hardest) of your metals
so you need less of it to compel the piston and con-rod to reciprocate
so a steel crankshaft is smaller diameter, and so has the least friction
likely also to be shorter, so saving engine (and crankshaft) weight and bulk

all competitive metals (Al,Mg,Fe,Ti) have stiffness in proportion to their density
and strength roughly in proportion to their density

though structural factors may supervene the above orderly state
(eg why a steel monocoque will always be heavier)

[Vortex347]

sorry my bad -don't know what I was thinking there will edit that out.
But still what about the gearbox and the rest of the engine lol, I know the engine is limited to ferro materials but is the gearbox the same?
Also what components of the engine and gearbox can be of carbon fiber construction
and finally
reference link: http://www.f1technical.net/articles/4

quote:
Engine blocks are constructed of forged aluminium alloy, because of the weight advantages it gives in comparison to steel. Other materials would maybe give some extra advantages, but to limit costs, the FIA has forbidden all non-ferro materials.
end quote

what could these other materials possibly be?

cheers

[Tommy Cookers]

even if permitted, there is not a single 'wonder material' that can be gainfully used for all parts

they have in effect banned from established use eg Ti con-rods and some Mg castings and Be/Al pistons
Beryllium is banned (eg over 5% as an alloy ingredient), it has remarkable properties both good and very bad (eg fatigue)
Be/Al alloys have never been taken up by aerospace

and they have banned MMCs and intermetallics
maybe these had potential to replace steel ('Fe') for crank and other shafts and gears ?

[Vortex347]

Yeah I saw the beryllium limit of 5% when i was skimming over the info on this website.
MMC that is a metal and non-metal compound isn't it?
Yeah current con-rods are steel (imagine the weight savings if they relaxed the material regulations a bit)95kg v8 would go to a 50kg engine!
What about the rocker covers and gearbox casing is there a material restriction on that (otherwise I take it that it is carbon fiber all the way for them parts)
I take it the gearbox adheres to a similar material regulation to the engine

[Cold Fussion]

The thing to remember is that steel, aluminum, magnesium and titanium have roughly the same specific strength and stiffness. So all other things being equal (which they aren't), a component designed to a strength requirement (with stiffness either comparatively low or secondary requirement) will be smaller when made from steel because of it's higher density.

[Brian Coat]

If the rules and budgets permitted it then I expect designers could find a use for MMCs and CMCs even at 12K rpm ...

[ESPImperium]

The Marussia/Manor MR03 torsion bar i own is made of Titanium and weighs only 74grammes. I have a Virgin VR-01 gearbox plate and a Marussia Virgin MVR-02 Torsion bar adapter as well, both are made of Titanium i think, both are quite light, however the Torsion Bar Adapter seems to be quite heavy.. The Virgin VR-01 Front Wing element (Launch Spec Element) i have is made of Carbon Fibre and had/had lightweight Titanium or Aluminium inserts for it to be placed on the front wing correctly.

I have a Caterham CT05 Turbo radiator coupling, that seems to be made of the same, Tig welded an with seals that look like they cost only pennies. I will say the inner surfaces are as rough as a badgers arse to be honest. And if its that bad, no wonder Renault have a atrocious engine.

Really need to buy some more F1 car parts soon. Maybes some more Caterham.

If i had the £12,000 in the bank, earlier on this year there was a HRT F110/F111 steering wheel that had been used by Bruno Senna, Sakon Yamamoto and Tonio Liuzzi.

If you look on eBay, with the right search terms you can unearth some gems for not too much.

[DaveW]

... a component designed to a strength requirement (with stiffness either comparatively low or secondary requirement) ...

Forgive me, but experience of rig testing a range of vehicles over a number years has taught me that stiffness is always important. Engines, bell housings & gear boxes usually have to transmit vertical, torsional and lateral loads between the rear axle & the tub.

Not all stiff vehicles are quick, but those that lack stiffness are never quick (in my view).

[riff_raff]

I am not intimately familiar with the most current F1 tech regs, but I believe they require the crank and camshafts to be made from steel alloy. Same with many of the transmission components such as gears.

[Cold Fussion]

... a component designed to a strength requirement (with stiffness either comparatively low or secondary requirement) ...

Forgive me, but experience of rig testing a range of vehicles over a number years has taught me that stiffness is always important. Engines, bell housings & gear boxes usually have to transmit vertical, torsional and lateral loads between the rear axle & the tub.

Not all stiff vehicles are quick, but those that lack stiffness are never quick (in my view).

I'm not saying it isn't important, I'm saying if the stiffness requirement is comparatively much lower than the strength requirement then a component made out of steel can be smaller for the same weight. Likewise in a design where stiffness is critical, a component made from aluminum will be stiffer for the same weight by virtue of having a larger CSA. This is of course greatly simplified as it ignores all the other important properties of the material.

[DaveW]

I'm not saying it isn't important...

I realize that, and I apologize for hijacking your post. But your statement allowed me to make (what I think is) an important point in the context of the thread.

You might be surprised just how often the stiffness requirement is ignored, even by eminent designers. (Off topic) A deficiency would normally first be encountered on track, because a DIL stimulation would not model it....

[Brian Coat]

This may be of interest.

These guys are on the shopping list of everyone from Aerospace & Defence to F1

They do stuff like triple vacuum arc remelted tool steel, inconel etc.

(Ker-ching!)

Here is their Motorsport pamphlet and you can see applications listed for rods, cranks etc.

Other suppliers are available ...

http://www.aubertduval.com/fileadmin/us ... ev2011.pdf

[riff_raff]

I don't think factors like elastic modulus or density are actually ignored by F1 designers. Instead they consider what is the optimum material for a given component in terms of regulations and performance requirements. For things like crankshafts, this currently means using ultra clean double vacuum melt steel alloys, combined with careful heat treating and processing to extract the maximum fatigue performance at minimum weight.

[Edis]

Crankshafts are made of chrome-moly-vanadium VIM-VAR steel, with counterweights of a tungsten based alloy. The crankshaft is deep nitrided for wear and increased fatigue resistance. These steel alloys are quite expensive.

Engine block and cylinder heads are made from cast aluminum, compared to regular production items they probably need to use an aluminum alloy with a slightly better heat resistance.

Valves are probably titanium, a grade 5 would probably suffice at the inlet while a higher grade would be required at the exhaust, Ti-6242 for instance. Exhaust valves of nickel based super alloy could be an option with these new turbo engines. Seats are probably beryllium-copper or similar, with bronze guides.

The structural valve covers are probably CNC machined from a billet, and could probably be made from a number of high strength aluminum alloys as the temperature requirements aren't very high.

Conrods are typically made from titanium, grade 5 or a higher strength grade.

Exhaust pipes are typically made from Inconel 625.

The clutch uses carbon-carbon for the friction plates, other parts are in titanium and steel.

The gearbox casing is made from CFRP. Xtrac, who makes gears for several F1 teams have developed their own steels, one called XM031 which is used for F1 gears a VIM-VAR nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy.