Environmentally Friendly Racing
I was reading an article about McLaren Formula One receiving a Flax plant composite racing seat this week and decided to look into this some more. I only knew the Flax plant to be used by cigarette companies for making the paper part of the cigarette. Who would ever imagine that Flax could form a new material called Ampli Tex.
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New seats going to be used later this season for the first time.
Racing cars used to be a mix of two materials Glass Fiber and the other Carbon.Carbon fiber became popular because not only did it offer massive strength, but it also reduced weight. Racing engineers preferred this material as it could be used as part of the chassis and was easy to mold. Glass Fiber was seen as dangerous with it's characteristics on how it shattered yet it was way cheaper so was reluctantly pushed away for the lighter more expensive Carbon.
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Ampli Tex is a sustainable material developed by a Swiss company called Bcomp. This material is kind of in the middle for strength between Glass Fiber and Carbon. The difference is it has a 75% lower C02 footprint plus it is more affordable.
Flax has some unique attributes which offers some advantages over Carbon. Firstly it is roughly 10 percent lighter and absorbs vibrations.The tests reflect that it actually absorbs 5 times more vibrations than Carbon. The way the panels are made with the Flax strands and power ribs making the Ampli Tex material it doesn't break like carbon does. There are no pieces breaking off as they are all kept together by the rib design. The absorbing vibration characteristic also offers less chance of failure whereas Carbon becomes brittle once it fails.
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Natural fibers such as Hemp and Flax open up so many opportunities to ditch plastic and in some cases even metal.
Not having the strength of Carbon still has some benefits as the drivers safety capsule could in theory be carbon with the remainder of the car made from Ampli Tex instead. Not only that but all the molds in the factory could be made from this material as well.
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Porshce,BMW are already using this technology so Formula One has some catching up to do.
Next year we will see the new budget caps being used properly. This year it won't really effect anyone as so many races were cancelled with only 15 or so races in and around Europe scheduled. This material works out at about 30 percent cheaper than carbon.
The uses are endless as they have been looking at truck panels,packing crates,pit gear and timing stands. The good thing is they are all having to look at how to reduce their carbon foot print. This they wont be eradicated entirely, but any gains for the environment is a plus..