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McLaren develops new aero-inspired carbon fiber system for its super cars

British luxury car manufacturer and Formula 1 racing team owner McLaren has developed a world-first application of a cutting-edge and highly specialized manufacturing process for making carbon fiber parts. The company aims to provide its future models with a major leap forward in applying the best attributes of the material.

Aerospace industry-grade carbon fiber comes to supercars with McLaren ART carbon: a world first in lightweight supercar engineering. [Credit: Image courtesy of McLaren Automotive]

 

 

With more than four decades of experience in exploiting the benefits of carbon fiber as an enabler of lightweight, high-performance, and structural strength, McLaren has driven key developments in racing and automotive uses for the material, making it not only the standard across the Formula 1 grid, but bringing it to the regular road too. Every single McLaren ever made has been based on a carbon fiber monocoque, while McLaren also maximizes the benefits of this lightweight, strong, and durable material in body structures and aerodynamic systems in a bid to unlock maximum performance and thrilling driving dynamics.

The aerospace industry uses ultra-precise manufacturing methods to build highly tailored carbon fiber structures for the latest generation of jetliners and fighter aircraft, particularly for large, crucial parts such as the aircraft fuselage and wings. This is achieved via the robotic depositing of composite tapes to layer structures, over traditional hand layup using pre-impregnated materials. In this light, McLaren has developed a rapid-pace, high-rate version of carbon fiber part production and integrated it into its manufacturing capabilities at the McLaren Composites Technology Center (MCTC) in Sheffield, UK.

Called Automated Rapid Tape (ART), the new process unlocks the enormous potential to further enhance McLaren road cars with carbon fiber structures that are optimized to be even lighter, stiffer, and stronger, produced with even greater consistency from part to part, and produced in a manner that generates less waste material. The resulting McLaren ART carbon fiber forms are also visually distinct from conventional hand-cut, pre-impregnated carbon fiber components.

McLaren's Automated Rapid Tape (ART) system allows for anisotropic stiffness -- rigidity can be enhanced in specific directions, while flexibility can be maintained elsewhere. [Credit: Image courtesy of McLaren Automotive]

 

 

 

 

Reconfiguring and refining the aerospace industry method of using robotic arms to layer composite tapes, McLaren's ART method employs a specially designed machine using a fixed deposition head and a rapidly moving bed capable of rotation, which the company says "unlocks a faster manufacturing process suitable for automotive purposes and high-rate composites manufacturing."

Greater design freedom for engineers
McLaren ART enables tailored fiber placement, creating new possibilities relating to load-bearing or stiffness requirements not possible by conventional methods. It also encourages innovation by freeing engineers from uniform material constraints. Specific adjustment of fiber orientation within the composite material allows for anisotropic stiffness -- rigidity can be enhanced in specific directions, while flexibility can be maintained elsewhere. This unlocks new ways to design highly loaded, complex aerodynamic components.

It also allows for optimized strength-to-weight designs. Fibers can be concentrated in areas subject to high stress or load, such as joints, edges, or connection points, in turn allowing for the removal of unnecessary material in low-stress regions.

"Think of it like human skin. It can be thin and flexible like your eyelids but also strong and durable like your elbows," says Joe Elford, Plant Director, McLaren Composites Technology Center, in the see-it-in-action video below.

Structures created with less waste
As measured lengths of dry composite tape are laid down when building out a part made of McLaren ART carbon fiber, there is a significant reduction in the generation of irregular-shaped off-cuts that cannot be reused. The company says up to 95% of the raw dry tape material used to layer a component goes into the final part.

McLaren's ART system unlocks new ways to design highly loaded, complex aerodynamic components. [Credit: Image courtesy of McLaren Automotive]

 

 

The automated process also reduces positioning inaccuracies and material loss caused by human error, ensuring that the final layup is within design tolerances, in turn minimizing rejected parts. The automated element of the ART machine provides real-time monitoring and control, ensuring consistent process parameters and optimized part quality.

Greater use of carbon fiber
The advantages ART technology can deliver in terms of manufacturing time and reduced costs creates the possibility of greater use of carbon fiber in more areas of a vehicle. Looking beyond the carbon tub, wider use of ultra-lightweight body panels constructed of McLaren ART carbon fiber become more feasible and cost effective.

The first McLaren vehicle to feature McLaren ART carbon fiber is the company's new Ultimate supercar, the McLaren W1. [Credit: Image courtesy of McLaren Automotive]

 

 

A prototype, high-rate ART deposition machine has been installed at the McLaren Composites Technology Center, and this first installation of Automated Rapid Tape technology will be upscaled to an industrial-spec machine later in 2025, with increased manufacturing capacity.

VIDEO: See it in action: McLaren ART carbon -- a world first in lightweight supercar engineering.

The first McLaren vehicle to feature McLaren ART carbon fiber is the company's new Ultimate supercar, the McLaren W1. The fixed plane within the active front wing assembly, an integral part of the car's extraordinary aerodynamic package that can generate up to 1,000 kg of downforce, is manufactured from McLaren ART carbon, benefitting from the increased stiffness of parts made using the ART process. The ART carbon fixed plane is up to 10% stiffer than a comparable pre-impregnated part, reflecting a significant enhancement, considering its aerodynamic load-bearing function. Further components made from ART carbon fiber are under consideration for production examples of the W1.

Source: McLaren Automotive

Published March 2025

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