Recently the Honda Racing F1 Team based in Brackley purchased a 320 kV Micro-Focus Computed Tomography X-ray system from X-Tek Systems (Tring). As part of this process X-Tek Systems became an associate of the Honda Racing F1 Team.
The system is used within the Honda Racing F1 Team as part of their Total Quality Management (TQM) system and has become a key component in the armoury of tools used by Honda to avoid car failures, checking parts at every stage from R&D, through fabrication to post race examination.
Prof. Gary Savage (Operations Director, Honda Racing F1 Team) commented "The system is like a calibrated pair of eyes that can see inside all our components". A recent application was to find the cause of a fault on an expensive and critical component that had taken three weeks to produce. The fault was detected by ultrasound, but the source or extent of the damage was not known, therefore the component would have to be scrapped. After X-ray examination the fault was traced to a small shim pad and the main part did not need replacing.
The Honda Racing F1 Team is unique in that they have a policy of 100 percent inspection of all parts combined with a wide range of materials from lightweight composites to cast metals. The flexibility of the X-Tek System to run reliably from 25 kV to 320 kV allows all of these parts to be examined in a single system, either radiographically or by Computer Tomography.
Gary Savage commented "The system did everything we anticipated and was also good on parts that we had not expected to be able to examine"
X-Tek Systems is proud to work with the Honda Racing F1 Team and will continue to develop the functionality of their Micro-focus System. In response to the team's drive for faster turnaround times, X-Tek have developed an Ultra fast CT acquisition and reconstruction process that can generate useful 3D data in 3-5 minutes on key components of the team's Formula One car, significantly more quickly than any other system available today.
X-Tek Systems will continue to work with the Honda Racing F1 Team to improve the speed and quality of the data produced and the range of parts that can be examined. The first results of the collaboration will be presented at the X-Tek sponsored SIMBIOS conference 17th-18th Sept in Abertay, where a paper entitled "Honda Racing F1 Team - An X-ray metrology case study in association with X-Tek" will be presented.
