Aiming for aerospace

Already growing through its innovation in composite component manufacture, motorsport specialist, Prodrive Composites is now targeting a business stream with genuine synergy – the aerospace sector.

Prodrive is probably one of the most familiar names in motorsport, having won World Rally titles with Subaru, British Touring Car Championships with BMW, Alfa Romeo and Ford, plus class wins at Le Mans with Aston Martin Racing.

Continued success on the race track has led to substantial growth, and the company now has over 500 employees across the firm’s Banbury (headquarters) and Milton Keynes (composites) sites.

Prodrive has been manufacturing fibre-reinforced composite components for several years. Common motorsport parts produced in cleanroom conditions include large body panels, spoilers, bumpers and wing assemblies, through to smaller interior parts and boot catches. At its Milton Keynes facility, processes such as mould making, component lay-up, curing, trimming and bonding, in combination with high levels of quality control, have bestowed the company with significant expertise.

Growing composite requirements in the aerospace industry mean there is enough space for Prodrive to enter the market without treading on too many toes. However, while it’s true that the product manufacturing technology is the same, the company is aware that the size and shape of components is different, as are component traceability levels, and to this end it has made the appropriate preparations.

“We have a very strong reputation for on-time, on-quality delivery of painted composites achieved through precise planning of our schedules,” begins the company’s director of business development, Matt Bradney. “Being able to offer this to end users and other composite manufacturers gives them a reliable and stable supply chain from a renowned and IATF16949-accredited supplier.”

Prodrive Composites undertook the upgrade of its autoclave operating systems during 2022, following completion of the upgrade to the cooling systems. The key improvements are in cure efficiency, capacity, traceability, and reliability combined with a new dry air cooling system serving all three autoclaves providing intelligent temperature control that reduces heating/cooling times. The reduction in energy consumption resulting from this is also a significant contribution to scope 1 of the company’s Net Carbon Zero Strategy. It’s estimated that the combined improvements could achieve greater than 75% increase in current autoclave capacity with an estimated energy saving of up to 20%. 

Supply reliability

The types of demands placed on Prodrive Composites by today’s customers are around quantity, consistency, and sustainability. Bradney states that many customers contact Prodrive because of its reliable supply of high quality product delivered on time and to the right quantity and quality.

“Add into that consistency, and we achieve all this in spades,” he confirms. “More importantly are the design and engineering services which support the manufacturing. We are the leaders in the use of sustainable composites with several significant developments now moving into production, and other natural based fibres to follow on.

“Sustainability is now the vital element required by our automotive OEM customers, whether that is traditional lightweighting or more advanced use of materials, such as reclaimed carbon fibre for vehicle programmes. Our ability to combine pragmatic engineering design to give added-value to our customers, whether they are making an eVTOL, hypercar or a niche electric vehicle we have the same approach and best value engineering to deliver world-class components and assemblies.”

The demands from Prodrive’s OEM customers in terms of sustainability extend further than the use of more sustainable materials and processes. The company is now required to confirm its achievements to target scope 1 and 2 of its Net Carbon Zero Strategy.

“We can foresee this extending to the entire value chain CO₂ footprint being required to be mapped, not necessarily by ourselves but that we understand what the CO₂ impact is and that we are actively working to reduce it,” states Bradney.

In terms of any spikes in production demands, Prodrive concentrates mainly on the automotive sector, apart from some machining work and the significant safety critical structures and components it developed as part of the eVTOL programme delivered in 2021.

“We saw increased demand across all our automotive OEM and Tier 1 programmes during 2022 and this is expected to maintain at its current levels through 2023. Indeed, we already have our production plans for 2023 and beyond from some customers, with one programme we are currently working on has a production start of 2024. The level of enquiries for design and manufacture on new programmes and new customers remains strong with good levels of new enquiries being progressed, so we do not anticipate a spike or slowdown. Even if there is, we are prepared and well placed to remain stable throughout.

“Sustainability is something we’ve been working on since 2018 and has been core to our strategy for growth. Many customers are looking for lightweighting, which reduces the CO₂ impacts directly and indirectly, while others are seeking this too and the use of sustainable materials - whether this is for a performance vehicle or to increase range or payload. We are positioned as the leaders in this area, especially when you combine this with our engineering capabilities and we hope this will continue to grow in line with the wider application of composites.

“The hydrogen economy presents a fantastic opportunity for the whole composites supply chain, but requires government backing to make it a reality. Again, we have some knowledge in this area with intellectual property developed in previous years - which if used in the right application will be transformational for our business. We need to find the right entry point for it, rather than go head to head with the existing global supply chain.”   

The need for speed

Prodrive’s motorsport heritage has served the company well and continues to do so. In late 2022 it designed and manufactured new body panels for the Hunter Dakar Rally car in under three weeks. Most of the company’s work has timeframes of 3-4 months to develop designs, tooling and a first-off part.

“It’s always wanted sooner though, but we are a quality-driven company and this requires time to put the right processes and hardware into place,” notes Bradney. “You pay the penalty in production if you don’t have the processes refined and hardware in place from the outset.”   

Meanwhile, an aerospace programme Prodrive delivered in 2021 flew for the first time in 2022, though this was an experimental aircraft piloted by a test pilot.

“The customer approached us and widened the scope to include front rotor blades development because of our engineering design capability and process controls. They knew that taking the programme to the aerospace supply chain could never have achieved the sub-12 month delivery of an all composite fuselage - a UK first, plus pylons for mounting electric motors and design, manufacturing and successful testing of an all composite set of front rotor blades - another UK first.

“The relationship and trust developed gave the customer the confidence we could deliver on our promises, and we did. We used some novel technology to help us achieve this, as well as the skills and innovation of our teams. Technology is fine if you know how to use it and can get the best out of it, but it needs to be appropriate. We used an augmented reality (AR) system to closely control the manufacturing processes and provide quality assurance on the incredibly complex and detailed hand lay-up of the rotor blades.”

Prodrive invested in four sets of AR workstations, each workstation comprising a camera, a wall-mounted monitor and a computer running the AR programme. The camera captures real-time images of the actual mould tool as it is being used to layup the component. The AR software combines this image with a computer-generated 3D image of each ply piece in sequence taken from the 3D ply stack created by the design and engineering department. This AR combination of real-life images and CGI is shown on the monitor. The laminator then positions the actual kit cut ply piece exactly like the virtual ply piece shown on the monitor to millimetre precision.

“This greatly reduces the need for laminators to measure or use templates on the job and removes any ambiguity or personal interpretation around the position and orientation of a ply piece,” states Bradney. “The AR system also records the images for quality assurance purposes.”

Prodrive’s most recent work in aerospace was the engineering development and manufacture of an all-composite eVTOL aircraft. This involved the development of tooling and manufacturing process to produce a 10m long fuselage which will house the power and control systems, as well as the test pilot.

“This will be a UK first,” Bradney confirms. “It was the largest composite structure we have ever produced and involved a dedicated team of engineers and technicians to build the tooling, manufacture the fuselage and bring the two halves together to create a single aircraft fuselage - a very impressive feat of engineering. We also produced the 5m long pylons which hold the front and rear electric motors, along with the wiring and power systems to feed them. We then extended the scope to develop the front rotor blades, which had to be designed to be aero-efficient and to time with the angle of attack of the individual blade in operation to ensure it was correct to give the right degree of movement of the aircraft.

“This is where the AR technology came into its own and provided millimetre accuracy and live video recording of the manufacturing process. This was programme which was completed in less than 12 months. I am not aware of any other company in the UK or Europe who could achieve this.”   

The inside track

Prodrive Composites is a member of Composites UK, with Bradney on the organisation’s board of directors as a non-executive since 2019. Now in his second term, he’s taken on the chair of the Skills and Workforce Development Group to raise awareness of the industry to new talent and within schools, colleges, and universities.

“As with other sectors we have a challenge with skills,” states company CEO, Warren Roberts. “With Matt being on the inside of Composites UK, we feel that this again positions us to be seen as a thought leader, as well as contributing to the future health of the composites industry. Of course, more could always be done, but this is a varied industry with materials and processes, as well as applications and sectors.

“This makes it difficult to try bring about a consensus and unified voice, but with the work that Composites UK do and that of the Composites Leadership Forum (CLF), they are starting to gain momentum. The CLF will be a vital body to lobby and obtain government and cross-sector support for improvements within the UK supply chain. We know that to have a viable Hydrogen economy we need a UK manufacturer of carbon fibre, as without that, there won’t be sufficient producers globally to support the forecasted growth the Hydrogen economy requires.”  

In summary, Prodrive Composites continues to grow the business and increase the skills of its teams to further enable development and progression. The company is taking on new trainees from outside the composites industry and this is proving to be refreshing and a positive experience. Finally, Prodrive says it will continue to progress with the technology and capacity to support its customers. All in all, it is excited to look at the next levels of automation for high rate manufacture of composites.

www.prodrive.com