An advanced Resin Transfer Moulding system (Advanced RTM) developed by the ATR Group and Huntsman Advanced Materials has been used on an award winning prototype engine air box for the Ferrari F430. ATR Group is an Italian consortium comprising nine companies involved in the research and production of advanced structural composite parts and components. Using ATR’s RTM technology and a new epoxy resin system - XB 3583/Aradur 3486/ LMB 6432 from Huntsman Advanced Materials - it was possible to build the prototype of the engine air box.
RTM is an established moulding process in which a catalysed resin is transferred into an enclosed mould, lined with reinforced fibrous material. It then may or may not be heated to complete the moulding process. The main benefit of RTM is that it combines relatively low cost tooling and equipment costs with the ability to consolidate large structural parts.
With the Ferrari F430 engine air box, the weight of the finished prototype part was virtually halved from the aluminium original – down from 4.1kg to just 2.4kg. This was achieved by using a special, flexible silicone membrane rather than the usual metal RTM mould, which enabled the resin content to be reduced and the reinforced fibre content to be increased. Additional external pressure was also applied to the membrane to optimise this process.
The complex prototype part produced using this advanced RTM system was extremely accurate – even the engine flange drill holes matched up with no further finishing required. No additional bonding was needed either to add connecting parts such as inserts and internal auxillairy structures as they were formed in the mould during the RTM process