Bronze machining is a technique that is revolutionizing the automotive, marine and electronics industries. Bronze is a copper-based alloy made primarily of copper and tin that offers

“Everything has a carbon footprint. When you take a raw material and manufacture it, especially something very complex like carbon fibre which has a lot of different components, all of those raw materials have to be extracted, processed and transported, and there's energy and fuel that go into all of those things. We're also then using energy to dispose of it. If you recycle that piece of carbon fibre, then you’re skipping a lot of those steps.”

Oscar agrees: “It’s incredible to think of the impact such a seemingly small change could make to the overall carbon emissions of the sport if it’s used more widely, and it's very exciting to be the team taking the step to try it.”

Millingmachine

NASA isn’t involved in our latest carbon fibre innovation, but it is possible that the rCF we use could have previously been used in building a rocket ship.

As part of our sustainability strategy, we aim to reduce our greenhouse gas footprint by 50% by 2030 and become net zero by 2040

Global demand for carbon fibre is ever-increasing, and it is forecasted that by 2025, it will reach 262,000 tonnes. If just 1% of that carbon fibre was recycled, it would save 70,848 tonnes of carbon emissions – equivalent to more than our total emissions in 2022 or a quarter of F1's 2019 carbon footprint.Â

ManualMillingMachine for sale

“A more circular economy is essential to decarbonising not only us as McLaren Racing but also the sport and industry more widely,” says Krzys. “We really want to throw our weight behind these developing technologies so that they can scale and develop to the point where they can be used across the grid.”

“The feedback has been really good so far. I’ve had fellow employees coming over to see what the difference is between them, and everyone seems really impressed so far. It's cool to be one of the first people to work on this project, and it will be really interesting to see how far it takes us.”

Milling machines have many uses for DIY, and can offer great precision for drilling and machining various mechanical parts.However, milling machines not easy tools for amateur machinists to use, and mastering them requires practice.

So even though NASA isn’t linked to our latest carbon fibre innovation, like they were in 1981, it still feels like its impact could be astronomical.

Together with innovative composites organisation, V Carbon, the cutting-edge material will be trialled at the US Grand Prix

While it may be difficult to use the tool confidently at first, safety is paramount. So, if you are new to using the milling machine, keep the following tips in mind:

If you are reading this article, you may be a beginner interested in learning more about milling machines. Learning more is a good idea, because lack of knowledge can be dangerous… But once you know how, the machine can work wonders!

If our rCF trial proves successful, it could play a defining role in creating a fully circular Formula 1 car, which would surely go down as one of motorsport’s greatest and most important innovations, just like carbon fibre did.

McLaren Plus is our free-to-join fan loyalty programme, bringing McLaren fans closer to the team with the most inclusive, rewarding and open-to-all fan programmes in motorsport.

Types ofmillingprocess

“We're using them on non-structural, non-safety critical parts to prove that it works,” says Krzys Kaczmarski, Senior Sustainability Manager. “This will prove that it's fit for purpose and that it is good enough to be used on a Formula 1 car.”

Once delivered, the carbon fibre is stored in a freezer at the McLaren factory, protecting its shelf life and keeping it in prime condition. It’s removed to defrost ahead of the laminating process, before a mould is used to produce the shaped part. The mould is then coated in a release agent to ensure the laminate doesn’t stick to it during the curing process.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the recycled carbon fibre closely matches the properties of regular carbon fibre, despite going through the recycling process. “This is really, really impressive,” says Jacob Tidy, Composites Apprentice. This project is Jacob’s final one as part of his apprenticeship with McLaren. He took it on out of interest in the new material and was responsible for manufacturing the rCF component.

To further improve sustainability during the process, the team have been trialling bio-based vacuum bags, which, if successful, would be a considerable improvement on the current system, where several single-use bags are disposed of during the process.

Want to find out how to correctly operate a milling machine? In this article, our industrial machining service experts will tell you everything you need to know.

The first layer of carbon fibre is then applied to the mould, with further layers following depending on the size of the job. Essentially, you're using several thin and flexible sheets to build up the thickness in order to make a rigid component. A front wing, for example, would require more layers than the smaller cockpit branding panels.

ManualMilling

Modern milling machines are equipped with numerical control that can produce more precise cuts. Here are the 3 most popular types of CNC milling machines:

A vacuum bag is used again before it is put into the autoclave, which applies high pressure to force the layers together.

Cast iron machining is widely used in the industrial sector in the manufacture of machined parts and mechanical components, and in machine tooling. Cast iron is a

“This unlocks the potential to use it in other areas of the car, considering that the mechanical properties are near enough the same as normal carbon fibre.

This process is then repeated, with further layers and debulks completed, ahead of bagging. This involves covering the carbon fibre in release film - which prevents the resin from sticking to the bagging materials - and a breather – a highly-porous material that allows the gases in the laminate to be drawn out via the vacuum.

Step millingmachine

That such a small change can make such a big difference is precisely why our team’s work has been so effective. Our long-term targets are hugely ambitious and require significant progress both at McLaren and in the wider market, but in the short term, there are many incremental improvements and innovations available to us.

With traditional milling machines, the operator moves the cutting tool manually to shape the workpiece. Modern milling machines, on the other hand, are equipped with a CNC control system that can perform very precise work using pre-established movements.

“Only true collaboration will help us drive meaningful change. We rise and fall together. We each have to play our part, raise our standards, take accelerated action to reduce our negative impacts. And we need to support each other along the way."

“This unlocks the potential to use it in other areas of the car, considering that the mechanical properties are near enough the same as normal carbon fibre”

Plastic machining is a manufacturing technique that is key to modern industry, particularly in the automotive, aerospace, electronics and medical sectors. Unlike metals, plastics offer unrivalled lightness,

We’ve linked up with a unique and innovative company called V Carbon. Using cutting-edge, first-of-its-kind technology, we collaborated to source and manufacture recycled carbon fibre. It will be trialled on the cockpit branding panels of Lando and Oscar’s cars at the US Grand Prix in Austin, replacing the dynamic branding panels.

Millingprocess

Many outside of McLaren were initially sceptical of the MP4/1’s carbon fibre chassis, which was designed and developed by our then Technical Director, John Barnard. The chassis was developed with the help of an American company called Hercules Aerospace, which had built rocket parts for NASA.

This means keeping materials in circulation for as long as possible while minimising the resources we consume and the waste we produce. We’ve already made steps towards this – as Lando mentioned, we introduced bio-based flax fibre as a substitute for traditional carbon fibre in 2020, which has been successfully used in both drivers’ seats ever since.

The rCF will feature on the cockpit branding panels of Lando and Oscar’s cars in Austin, replacing the dynamic branding panels

As a team, we’re determined to be at the heart of a sustainability sea-change across Formula 1. As part of our four-pillared sustainability strategy, we aim to reduce our greenhouse gas footprint by 50% by 2030, become net zero by 2040, accelerate the transition to a circular economy, and research & develop a fully circular F1 car.

Milling machines are cutting tools that rotate at high speed to remove chips from a workpiece. The process involves the operator moving the cutting tool towards the workpiece to cut the material. If the work is done correctly, the workpiece is eventually shaped into the desired form.

Our machinists know milling machines inside and out: they have been using them to perform complex machining every day for years. If you want precise and professional work done, trust us with your cutting needs. We can handle a vast range of parts from a wide variety of industries. If you are in Greater Montreal and need the help of a trusted industrial machining company, don’t hesitate to contact us.

And now, our team has become the first to use recycled carbon fibre (rCF) on an F1 car, an innovation that aims to lower the carbon footprint of the car manufacturing process and reduce resource usage. Circular economy is a key pillar of our sustainability strategy, and this is the latest major step in our ambitious long-term goal to research and develop a fully circular F1 car.

Here are the essential facts to know about the milling machine, a cutting tool that the HARtech team values tremendously.

Lando is in his fifth season with the team, has been on this sustainability journey with us from the start and  says he’s excited by this next step: “I was the first driver to race in a seat made out of bio-based flax fibre in 2020, and now I get to be at the forefront of innovation again by trialling recycled carbon fibre on the car in Austin.”

Compared to standard carbon fibre, the recycled equivalent reduces life cycle emissions by 90% - saving 27 tonnes of carbon emissions for each tonne of material used.

And although we are proud to be the first team to achieve this, we believe in a future where teams across the grid can work together in sustainability for the greater good, as CEO Zak Brown has previously discussed: “To unlock this incredible potential, we need to find better ways to share expertise and insights across our industry.

Step millingtools

COO Piers Thynne also emphasised the need to work with other organisations within the sport, when discussing our rCF project: “We will continue to work closely with the FIA, F1 and fellow teams to help accelerate change.”

V Carbon has supplied us with the recycled material, which is waste carbon fibre from production in other industries. As we expand our use of rCF, this material could come from any number of previous lives: one of our racing cars, a fighter jet, a road car, a wind turbine blade… Or, maybe, just maybe, a rocket ship.

Krzys expands: “The reason we're doing this trial and we're so excited about it is because it is about showing that this is possible. It is about exploring what can be done in the manufacturing of a Formula 1 car to make it more sustainable. Â

None of this would have been possible had the entire team not bought into it. Like all of our sustainability work to date, the rCF project has been a company-wide effort. Led by the Sustainability and Materials Engineering teams, they came together with Composites Manufacturing, Procurement, Brand and Commercial to make this a reality.

Step millingtechniques

What starts with a trial can grow into something much more significant, but these smaller adjustments don’t only help us to unlock the potential for much greater change in the future, they make us more sustainable in the present.

Manufacturing an F1 car is one of the most significant contributing factors to our carbon footprint. So, making this process more sustainable is one of our biggest challenges and most important focuses. Two fairly simple statistics can demonstrate why this move could prove to be such a ground-breaking one…

Forty-two years on, the McLaren MP4/1 is still considered one of Formula 1’s most influential cars, as it was the first to run a carbon fibre chassis, an innovation that has vastly improved the safety of motorsport.

Using a vacuum bag, a debulk is completed between each layer to suck the air out, consolidating the carbon fibre layer onto the mould and ensuring there aren’t any gaps between the layers and the mould.Â