Renowned technology firm Cosworth has emerged from a challenging year with renewed vigour and an impressive vision to play an instrumental role in the future of mobility solutions for land, air and sea. Manufacturing remains a key part of the company’s value chain as it seeks to offer customers a competitive advantage through its propulsion and intelligence offering.
Companies with a proven track record of resilience and adaptation to changing times have often thrived in the face of adversity. Against the backdrop of the global pandemic, which continues to cast its dark cloud over industries around the world, the visionaries at Cosworth have pushed on through with bullish determination.
There are few companies around the world who could reflect on 2020 in an overtly positive light, yet Cosworth – in the seventh decade of operation – is entering an exciting new chapter of business, one in which advanced manufacturing remains an important part of the value chain.
Since its opening in 2015, the Cosworth Advanced Manufacturing Centre has become an embodiment of the company’s future vision. Far from being a ‘build it and they will come’ field of dreams, the AMC as it’s affectionately known has already attracted some of the world’s biggest and most prestigious brands. Aston Martin, Gordon Murray Automotive, Honda – and countless more who are contractually obliged to remain nameless – these are serious global players who entrust pivotal programmes in Cosworth’s hands. Looking at the facilities, it’s no wonder why.
The AMC has enabled Cosworth to remain a trusted partner for OEMs looking for superlative performance, pristine production and exquisite quality – whether from a clean sheet or from its own designs. The clean sheet capability means that customers can bring Cosworth an entire project from scratch to be designed, developed, tested and manufactured all in-house.
“As a business we like to offer a seamless offering,” explains AMC Manager Jonathan Miller. “For the customer, it allows them to come to us with a vision of what they want their car to do. We go away and design the engine around their precise and exacting requirements, analyse and produce prototypes for testing. We then manufacture it. This process allows the customer to keep the entire project in-house with us rather than going to one place for the engineering and sourcing another to manufacture the finished project.”
However, while this is the end-to-end process on which Cosworth thrives, there are also opportunities for OEMs who need a ‘make to print’ service where the customer arrives with a fully designed component that requires specialist production using Cosworth’s array of technologically advanced machinery.
“We seek out two different types of customer,” adds Miller, “one is external, where we run ‘make to print’ manufacturing – customers who arrive with a fully designed component that we produce for them. The other is internal, where the customer project is designed in-house at Cosworth. We approach both of these types of customer similar to the way a large OE manufacturer would: we use the same production processes and methods. Although we sit in the low-medium volume market, it’s always high value, so we must offer the same production standards that large OEMs can, or even better.”
The 38,000sq/ft purpose-built AMC facility features a comprehensive array of equipment that wouldn’t look out of place in a top level research lab. Its fully flexible manufacturing system is built around 11 Matsuura CNC automated machining centres with automatic pallet loading, enabling production volumes that range from pilot prototypes right up to 20,000 units per year, with multiple product lines running concurrently.
These machines work 24 hours, five days a week thanks to the automated pallet loading, robotic tool change and the central tool storage. To increase quality even further, the entire facility is temperature controlled and benefits from a ‘swarf-free’ environment ensuring that tolerances are maintained to the highest degree and surface finish quality is not jeopardised. This clinical attention to detail coupled with the advanced technology is what allows Cosworth to machine components with high levels of complexity such as cylinder heads, engine blocks, camshafts and crankshafts. Other complex components to receive the Cosworth treatment include: gearbox casings, battery covers, electric-motor housings and an array of chassis and suspension components.
To complement the flexible manufacturing system, Cosworth has also invested in a robotic FlexWasher, delivering the highest level of cleanliness utilising pressurised water at 5,500 psi and part manipulation to maximise water drainage. The AMC also boasts a state-of-the-art precision honing system using diamond tip cutting tools, all compatible with plasma coating.
The Oerlikon-Metco SUMEBore plasma coating machine has taken engine development and production to the next level. Used to coat cylinder bores, the machine takes metal powder, melts it down to liquid form, where it is then sprayed using a rotating torch onto the bores of each cylinder. The cylinder bores are mechanically activated before the procedure begins with grooves pre-cut into the cylinder walls. This ensures a strong bond between the coating and substrate.
The results of this specialised coating produce a far more mechanically efficient engine by reducing friction between pistons, rings and the cylinder bore walls. This means the engine is also more fuel efficient. It also reduces wear which, in turn, improves component lifespan. Lastly, block assemblies are lighter due to the lack of need for heavy steel liners.
Once the coating process is complete, the bores are then honed with a Gehring machine. This diamond cutting process reveals small pores within the extremely smooth surface. These pores create oil retention within the bore surface, enhancing hydrodynamic behaviour and friction reduction.
The plasma coating machine itself is cutting-edge technology that is not readily available to most companies of Cosworth’s size. Typically, the preserve of large-scale OEMs or specialists, it’s something that sets Cosworth apart from its immediate competition and allows the company to offer OEM level production standards, whilst mainly catering for low to medium volume, high value programmes.
“We have a niche place in the market,” explains Key Account Manager Richard Sammut. “Our scale is a lot smaller than a traditional OEM’s line but bigger than a prototype shop, so we’re able to offer the small to medium volume work that is not economical for large OEMs.”
A quick look at some of the company’s current projects underscores the important role that Cosworth is playing in redefining industry expectations. The Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 hypercar features a Cosworth 3.9-litre V12 engine. This unit was fully developed and produced in-house and will be the highest-revving and most responsive naturally aspirated engine ever fitted to a production road car with a 12,100rpm redline.
Alongside this highly anticipated model, other projects also include the engine block and cylinder heads for Honda’s NSX supercar and a 1,000 horsepower, 6.5 litre V12 heart that lies within the world beating Aston Martin Valkyrie.
“We have the ability to run programmes for special edition or high-performance models that are usually produced in smaller quantities,” says Sammut. “Aston Martin wouldn’t have been able to produce the Valkyrie themselves in an economical sense which is why they came to us.”
When the AMC was opened in 2015 by then British Prime Minister David Cameron, he described Cosworth as ‘the perfect example of a British manufacturing success story.’ The next chapter of that story has already begun as the company approaches a new year ready to tackle whatever challenges and opportunities come its way.
You just can’t manufacture the sort of reputation that Cosworth has worked hard to establish over sixty years, and that looks set to continue well into an exciting future.