ISSUE 060 race engine TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2012
Goodwin Semi Hemi Dossier • Heads and Blocks Focus • Lotus Cosworth Toyota V6 Insight • PRI and IMIS Show Report • Machine Tools Focus • Gilles Simon • Sonny’s 1005
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Race Engine Technology issue 060 : FEBRUARY 2012
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FOCUS : MACHINE TOOLS
No matter the complexity of the part, or the tolerances required, the kit is available for the job. Lawrence Butcher reports
GILLES SIMON: Preparing for F1’s new turbo era THE COMMUNICATIONS HUB OF THE RACING POWERTRAIN WORLD
DIRT DIGGER TO PRO MOD
CHALLENGER Goodwin’s Semi Hemi phenomenon
STRUCTURAL
ENGINEERING Focus on race engine blocks and heads
MANUFACTURING
SOLUTIONS State of the art in machine tools
FEBRUARY 2012 Piece by piece USA $20, UK £10, EUROPE e15 01_060COVER
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ext to improvements in materials technology, high- precision machine tools have been one of the key enablers in the development of race engine technology. While simulation and computing power also have a role
to play, the ability to manufacture components to the incredibly fi ne tolerances required in an engine revving to 20,000 rpm has been of vital importance. The development of tools capable of working hard- to-machine materials such as titanium and metal matrix alloys has also allowed engineers to push the development envelope further. In general, motorsport is not the realm of vast production runs, with
most work being one-offs or small batches, although developments in machine effi ciency can still bring considerable benefi ts to motorsport manufacturers. Visit any race engine manufacturer today and the machine shop will undoubtedly be dominated by several multi- purpose machine centres capable of turning metal billet seamlessly into fi nished components. Machining processes can be split into two clear categories –
conventional and non-conventional. Conventional processes cover operations such as turning, milling and grinding, where material is removed from a workpiece mechanically through contact with a tool. Non-conventional processes are those that do not use mechanical means to remove material, and cover operations such as water-jet cutting, laser cutting and electrical discharge machining. We’ll cover the conventional processes fi rst. At the upper echelons of the market, the days of having one
machine tool for each process are numbered. For high-volume production runs, where effi ciency savings are key to productivity, machines that perform both turning and milling operations simultaneously are becoming commonplace. This is not to say that the market for simple, or even manually controlled machines is dead; many companies still offer basic turning and milling machines
Lathes The venerable lathe has formed the backbone of machine shops since the Industrial Revolution, and in its various forms it is an exceptionally versatile tool. Even the most basic lathe can be used to turn, bore, drill, grind and cut screw threads – and, with some modifi cation, mill fl at surfaces, cut slots and carry out a host of other procedures as well. Although manual lathes are still often found tucked away in a corner of many machine shops, most units today will be of the CNC variety. In the past, lathes found in most motorsport machine shops would be either the traditional engine/bench type or capstan/turret type. The latter differs from the basic bench lathe in that it incorporates an indexable ‘turret’, holding multiple tools and allowing for a number of cutting operations to be undertaken by switching from one to another. Although computer-controlled machines are a relatively recent
development, so-called ‘automatic’ turret lathes have been around since the middle of the 19th century. These relied on mechanical systems using cams to automate the sliding and indexing of the turret, and the opening and closing of the chuck. For mass-production cycles, they greatly increased productivity over manual machines. The fact that they were often purpose-built to undertake a specifi c process made them infl exible, however, so they were not suited for short
A large CNC engine lathe. These have taken the place of the traditional capstan or turret lathes (Photo: Lawrence Butcher)
production work. The place of the automatic lathe has now been taken by CNC turning centres, capable of the same production effi ciencies but giving far greater fl exibility. Despite these advances, the basic operations undertaken by most turning machines do not differ greatly from those of 50 years ago, they are simply completed more rapidly and with a higher degree of repeatability. Screw cutting is a good example here. Where a machinist accustomed to cutting threads on a manual machine would have to calculate optimum spindle speeds, feed rate and many other variables, the process on many modern machines is much simpler. Invariably, the manufacturer’s control panel will feature an option for cutting threads of various sizes and pitches, so all the operator has to do is select the start and fi nish points. Talking to an employee responsible for customer training at a major machinery manufacturer, the ability to perform such previously time-consuming processes rapidly was a major factor in encouraging an upgrade to modern CNC equipment. For some applications, especially those that involve turning parts
which are fairly short, vertical lathes are growing in popularity. These still perform the same operations as a standard machine, yet are oriented vertically. Clearly this precludes the machining of very long items, as this would make packaging impractical, but for smaller items they can be very effi cient. Most of the machines on the market use a rotary workpiece carousel that can hold multiple components, making them ideal for batch production. The other obvious benefi t is that they have a far smaller footprint in the machine shop.
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060 contents • In ConversatIon:
GILLes sIMon Former Ferrari Grand Prix engine designer Gilles Simon is heading the PURE 2014 Formula One engine project. Here he talks to Ian Bamsey
• DossIer: GooDWIn
seMI HeMI Truck pulling is as close as it gets to racing engines using dynos. Ian Bamsey examines a successful contender headed for the track
• FoCus: HeaDs anD BLoCKs Wayne Ward catches up on the latest developments in cylinder head and block materials and manufacture
• InsIGHt: Lotus
CosWortH toYota v6 Ian Bamsey investigates a most unusual mid/ transverse race engine installation – the Cosworth/Toyota-engined Lotus Evora GTE
• sHoW report:
prI anD IMIs 2011 Ian Bamsey walks the miles of aisles at PRI and IMIS in search of noteworthy powertrain products and services
• raCe enGIne DIGest:
sonnY’s 1005 Cu In v8 Anne Proffit reports on Sonny Leonard’s latest project, a 1005 cu in V8 behemoth nicknamed the Godfather
• FoCus: MaCHIne tooLs No matter the complexity of the part, or the tolerances required, the kit is available for the job. Lawrence Butcher reports
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