MARK:'The modern age demanded strong materials. And when we needed strength, we looked not to plastics but to metals. On their own, plastics were too weak, too bendy to make a car… or a plane.'
MARK:But plastics had one big advantage. They were light, an essential quality for speed and flight. So scientists set out on a quest to create plastics as strong as metals. 'In 1963, engineers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough made a breakthrough.'
MARK:'They managed to strengthen plastic so effectively it looked as though it might give metal a run for its money.'
MARKThis is carbon fibre. It's extremely strong, light, and stiff. Scientists found that when they combined it with plastic, they created a new material that was much better than the sum of its parts.
MARK:Some people called it 'black plastic', but today we know it as carbon fibre composite. 'Here, a carbon fibre composite is being made from sheets that contain carbon fibres and plastic.'
MARK:'It's built up layer by layer on moulds that can take any shape you need, and then cooked in an oven to make the plastic set hard. The end result is a material with a unique combination of properties - strong, stiff, and light, ideal for making one of the fastest machines on the planet.'
MARK:'Since the 1980s, Formula 1 teams stopped using metal for their car bodies and changed to using carbon fibre composite, because of its winning combination of lightness, stiffness, and strength.
MARK:'Brian O'Rourke is the chief composites engineer for the Williams team, and was involved in building their first composite car in 1984.'
BRIAN:What we're looking at is an awful lot of composite materials.
MARK:How much of this is composite, then? Is it–
BRIAN:Everything that you can see from the outside, apart from the wheels and tires.
MARK:So, what, the whole of this fuselage is composite?
BRIAN:Yes.
MARK:The whole of the underneath?
BRIAN:Suspension elements.
MARK:Yeah.
BRIAN:This is about structural composite materials.
MARK:Wow. Amazing.
BRIAN:We have been using these on F1 cars since 1981, in the industry, generally. And they replaced metallic materials that went before them.
MARK:Okay.
MARK:'That's because carbon fibre composites can offer the benefits of metals, for a lot less weight.
MARK:'So to compare the two, Brian has set up a simple experiment for me with two beams, one steel and one carbon fibre composite. One critical property is the stiffness, how much give it has. I'm gonna test this by standing on them to see how much they bend.'
MARK:Do Formula 1 drivers have to do this test? Am I treading on the toes of Schumacher?
BRIAN:I think they would be interested in it if it was going to make the car go faster. So if you stand right in the middle…
MARK:Yeah. And it's taking my weight no problem at all.
BRIAN:Yeah.
MARK:It feels very safe. Although, let's see how heavy this is. Yeah, I mean, I've been going down to the gym so I can do it, but it's heavy.
BRIAN:All right.
MARK:All right. Let's try this one. This is the composite?
BRIAN:This is the composite. I mean, you can make one on your own.
MARK:Not heavy at all.
BRIAN:Yeah.
MARK:'So this weighs a lot less.'
BRIAN:Same place.
MARK:'But does that mean it will bend a lot more?' Wow. So they've got the same stiffness. They're able to resist my weight.
BRIAN:Yes.
MARK:But this one's three and a bit times lighter.
BRIAN:Yes. That's what's really the interest for us in this material, because it's providing the same stiffness as steel would, but for less than a third of the weight. So the carbon fibre composite is a great advantage over metallics.
MARK:'And there's another advantage that carbon fibre composites have over metals. In a crash, the front section of the car explodes into tiny fragments. Although this looks dramatic, this actually disperses the energy of the impact away from the driver. In contrast, the driver's cockpit is designed to be strong and rigid.
MARK:'Together, this means that the driver is protected as much as possible from the impact. It's made driving a Formula 1 car far safer than it used to be.' Until carbon fibre composites can be mass produced, they'll stay in the hands of specialists. But where they can be used, they give huge advantages.'
MARK:'Because of its light weight, carbon fibre composite isn't just being used by Formula 1 racing teams. It's increasingly being used by the aerospace industry.
MARK:'The Boeing Dreamliner is exactly half composite. And in the future, more and more aircraft will essentially be made from plastic and carbon fibre.'
This short film, first published in 2012, is for teachers and review is recommended before use in class.
Mark Miodownik describes the invention of carbon fibre composite by engineers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1963.
He visits the Williams Formula 1 team headquarters to see how they have put this material to use in motor sport, before testing the properties of carbon fibre against metal.
This clip is from Materials: How They Work.
Teacher Notes
Cross curricular projects could be instigated using this resource.
Students could research additional uses of carbon fibre and could even link into a product design lesson, where they build an item using carbon fibre.
Or they could compare similar items that are made of two different materials, explaining why one is chosen over the other.
Curriculum Notes
These clips will be relevant for teaching Chemistry at KS3 and GCSE/KS4 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4/5 or Higher in Scotland. The topics discussed will support OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC GCSE in GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 and Higher in Scotland.
More from Materials: How They Work:
Bronze - The first alloy. video
Find out about the invention and impact of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin which was the first man-made alloy.
Development and uses of Optical Fibres video
Mark Miodownik describes how optical fibres work. He explains how they are able to transmit light over great distances.
What is Graphene? video
Mark Miodownik describes the discovery of graphene. It’s the toughest material we know, 200 times stronger than steel, and able to carry electricity at 1 million metres per second.
How was metal discovered? video
Scientist Mark Miodownik visits the earliest known copper mines in Israel's Timna Valley to explain the discovery of the first metal, copper.
How reinforced concrete works. video
To demonstrate the power of reinforced, a beam is tested with a 2.5 tonne load to see if it will crack. What is the chemistry behind its strength?
How the Romans invented concrete. video
Mark Miodownik explores how the Romans produced the first concrete and how concrete, glass and other ceramics are used in the modern world.
What is a superalloy? video
Mark Miodownik explores the world of superalloys, and puts the properties of one to the test showing how this metal is used inside a jet engine.
Superconductors and the 'Meissner effect' video
How can a piece of ceramic conduct electricity? Scientist Mark Miodownik explores the incredible potential of superconductivity.
The atomic structure of metal. video
Scientist Mark Miodownik explains how the atomic structure of metals gives them unique and highly useful properties.
What is superconductivity? video
Mark Miodownik puts the properties of a superalloy to the test with a practical demonstration of the strength of a superalloy under high temperatures and how this metal is used inside a jet engine.
The plastic revolution. video
Where do all the plastic goods that surround us come from? Mark Miodownik explores the history and molecular structure of these ubiquitous materials, and how they're formed.
Goodyear's groundbreaking invention of vulcanised rubber. video
Mark Miodownik describes Charles Goodyear’s experiments to vulcanise natural rubber into synthetic rubber.
The structure, properties and uses of Bakelite. video
Mark Miodownik describes the work of the chemist Leo Baekeland, who invented the plastic Bakelite.
What is reinforced concrete? video
Find out how concrete is reinforced through the use of steel. Scientists demonstrate how this works and how this method was invented in 1853.
Why is concrete so brittle? video
Find out about the chemistry behind concrete. Scientists use experiments and animations to demonstrate how concrete breaks under stress.
