Caparo at the Autosport International

The Caparo T1 high performance track and road car will form the centrepiece for a wide ranging display of vehicle component design and manufacturing capabilities presented by the Caparo group of companies at the Autosport International exhibition this week.

Caparo, which will exhibit throughout the show, including the two engineering trade days as well as the public days over the weekend, can be found on stand 9120, which is adjacent to the main F1 feature area in Hall 9. Autosport International is one of the world’s premier motorsport exhibitions and the show runs from Thursday 11 January to Sunday 14 January at the NEC in Birmingham.

“The automotive and motorsport sectors are very important to us,” commented Caparo group chief executive Angad Paul. “This is the third international motorsport event we’ve attended in recent months, where we’ve been able to present our design and manufacturing credentials, and the first motorsport event where we’ve been able to show off the Caparo T1, which exemplifies our technological and composite capabilities. The pace quickens; this time last year we had yet to announce the T1 project.”

Angad Paul heads up a £625m multinational company with plants in the UK, US, India and Spain – and a wide range of interests outside the automotive sector. He was appointed chief executive in 2003 and has been instrumental in pursuing the group’s automotive ambitions through a combination of acquisitions, the growth of established businesses, the development of new start-up projects - such as Caparo Vehicle Technologies which builds the T1 and was established less than 12 months ago - and the appointment of key personnel crucial to the success of the business.

“Our appointment of Gordon Murray, for example, as director of advanced concepts, will help us develop our carbon composite capabilities for all structural parts of a vehicle. Ultimately, we aim to produce parts in India at costs more appropriate to high volume series production. It may take 15 to 20 years before we see the widespread use of plastics and composites as an alternative to aluminium and steel, nonetheless we’re pursuing these materials because we recognise that vehicle light-weighting technologies provide Caparo with an excellent commercial opportunity to help car makers reduce vehicle carbon emissions.

“The combination of our advanced engineering capabilities in the UK, where we form part of the UK’s prestigious Motorsport Valley, and our investment in new manufacturing facilities in India for aluminium, steel and ultimately composite components will help us provide the high quality cost efficient products demanded by our automotive and motorsport clients.”

Caparo has already built seven new plants in the last three years and is now developing its automotive engineering complex near Chennai in India as part of its major plans for investing circa £120m (1,000 crores or 10bn rupees). In total, Caparo currently has nine more plants under construction to serve car and truck manufacturers.

“We want vehicle manufacturers to understand that we are a highly integrated Tier 1 supplier that is making the necessary investments to deliver on quality, service, price and technology,” added Richard Butler chief executive of Caparo Vehicle Products. “We want customers to have an insight into Caparo’s extensive range of components and in particular its ability to take an idea from concept, through the entire product design process, to the manufacture of high performance parts.”

“In the UK we have acquired Zeus and Bridge Aluminium, which means that we’re now the largest aluminium gravity die caster in the UK and a leading supplier of turbocharger and fuel injection components,” said Neil Geldard-Williams, managing director of Caparo Aluminium Technologies. “We’re also the leading supplier of high quality specialist aluminium cast components such as engine blocks and cylinder heads. These are produced at a state-of-the-art foundry, where we’ve already made major investments and where we’re currently installing a new sand moulding facility for large castings.

“These manufacturing investments have established Caparo as the leading UK aluminium gravity die and sand caster accounting for approximately half of all UK output. In India, we are investing in new forgings and stampings facilities and we also have a new foundry under construction at Chennai for high pressure die and gravity casting production, which will further help consolidate Caparo as a leading global supplier of aluminium automotive components.

“An extensive range of casting processes can now be offered by the group including precision and gravity die casting, horizontal casting, low pressure casting and high pressure casting, all supported by design work, computer simulation, pattern and tool making, and precision machining through to final assembly.”

To illustrate the synergy of its closely integrated company network, Caparo will display at Autosport International a new mono-block opposed-piston brake calliper developed by Caparo AP Braking for high performance sports car applications. The calliper is machined from a single aluminium casting produced by Caparo Aluminium Technologies and incorporates a recently developed thread forming fastener supplied by Caparo Atlas Fastenings, one of only a few companies licensed for this new technology which eliminates the need for a separate machining operation to form the required thread.

“Previously, vehicle manufacturers would have needed to approach a number of different companies for this solution,” said Stuart Scarbrough, sales director at Caparo AP Braking. “In addition, we have four new brake callipers under development including the design and evaluation of a brand new composite calliper.”

Having successfully bench tested the new motorsport calliper, its first application is the Caparo T1. The calliper has been designed for extreme deceleration from high speed and for the T1 application has been machined from a solid aluminium billet. For the front wheels each calliper incorporates six opposed pistons, while a smaller 4-piston caliper has been specified for the rear wheels.

“Following discussions with Gordon Murray and as part of Caparo’s continuing approach to lightweight component design and we are pursuing fresh initiatives to further reduce the weight of our fasteners,” said Ian Clarke managing director at Caparo Atlas Fastenings. “We’re a solutions driven company and one of our core fastening competences is application engineering, whereby we have engineers permanently resident with vehicle manufacturers dedicated to reducing the weight and cost of components.”

Caparo Atlas Fastenings is the UK’s leading manufacturer of specialist fasteners with patented anti-slip and torque tension characteristics for critical applications. Licences are held for a number of leading brands, such as Taptite, Powerlok and Torx, along with the Atlas own brand of high performance fasteners. It is also the largest supplier of cold forgings for formed and threaded fasteners in the UK and like other companies in the group has similarly established a new high volume manufacturing facility in India.