Well now to manufacturing.....well there are 2 kinds of ways to manufacture a carbon fibre part....well not really 2 ways....but 2 kinds of moulds that can be used:
- female mould - where the carbon layout is put inside the mould.
- male mould - where the carbon layout is put in the outside of the mould.
The first monocoques built were made with male moulds but there were some disadvantages....one was that the otter surface of the monocoque would only be as smooth as the finish applied to it! So if the person wasn't too good when it came to laying out the fibre and resin....you'de get a rough surface! Another disadvantage was that after finishing the monocoque the mould would have to be removed....which wasn't easy!
Now the female mould e mostly used....with the advantage of having the rough surface on the inside of the monocoque and the smooth surface on the outside....it is also easier to de-mould!
A monocoque is usually made in 2 to 4 parts.....the simplest way is 2 parts....the top part and the bottom part. Then some team make the air box in a seperate mould and bond it to the top section of the monocoque....and some make a 4th part as the back of the driver! The last part of the monocoque fabrication process is the bonding of the top half of the monocoque with the bottom half!
The most dificult part of all this is the creation of the mould....first when all the drawings are complete they go to the CNC department and a CNC machine cuts UREOL planks (which will be glued onto of each other) in order to make a full size monocoque replica! Around this replica they'll put carbon fibre and then it all goes into the Autoclave (high tempreture and high pressurre oven) to cook the carbon/resin! When finished you'll have the mould around the replica....when removing the mould the bottom half will be used for the bottom half of the monocoque and the top half for the top!...then it still gets some finishing treatments. After this the mould can be used to build a monocoque.....which is made by placing fibre matting (7 to 8 plies) then aluminum honeycomb...then another 7 to 8 plies of fibre....then back into the autoclave....when de-moulded you'll get part of the monocoque which will be bonded to the rest of the monocoque.
Making the other carbon fibre parts have a similiar process...of mould and fabrication! Depending on the forces applied on the part it will have more or less fibre plies.....and for most os the parts the aluminum honeycomb isn't necessary!
If someone has anything to add...please do....this is more or less a quick reply and a very summerized reply....I could stay here all day
