Pittsburgh, PA is known as ‘Steel City’ due to its long and proud history in the steel industry. Buffalo, NY was another strong steel city decades ago. Across the Pond, England’s version of Pittsburgh is the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield. That city’s history with metal working predates Pittsburgh’s by hundreds of years. Metal working was Sheffield’s dominant industry as far back as the 1300s.
We all know what happened when Asian steel began flooding Western markets in the 1970s. Cities like Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Sheffield suddenly could no longer compete. The steel industry dried up almost overnight. And with it went tens of thousands of jobs and the stability the industry previously brought to those cities. It is a tragic story all the way around.
The good news is that there may be a new story on the horizon. The composites industry is now looking forward to the possibility of future carbon fiber cities similar to the steel cities of old. Sheffield is already on course to be one such city thanks to the forward thinking at McLaren Automotive.
The King of High-Performance
McLaren’s claim to fame is its high-performance sports cars that dominate racetrack and road alike. If there is one thing McLaren is known for, it is speed. This is no accident. Company designers and engineers are constantly working to improve the performance of their vehicles. They spare no expense to make them faster, tougher, and stronger.
What you might not know is that McLaren was one of the early adopters of carbon fiber in the automotive sector. They saw the potential of this space-age material to simultaneously reduce weight and increase strength – two things you need to win on high-performance racing circuits.
McLaren’s primary technology center is also in England, in a Surrey town known as Woking. Things have been humming along quite nicely in Woking for years. But now there’s a problem. Local facilities cannot keep up with the demand for carbon fiber parts. So what is McLaren doing? Building a new plant in Sheffield.
The Skills and Facilities
The primary concern for McLaren right now is producing enough carbon fiber chassis to both keep up with current demand and allow the company to expand its production. In short, they cannot make the chassis fast enough in Woking. But rather than expand there, they have chosen to move chassis production to Sheffield. Why? Because Sheffield has the skills and facilities.
Sheffield’s history as a metal working center suggest there is already a supply of skilled workers ready to step in. The local area also has the infrastructure and facilities to support carbon fiber manufacturing. McLaren just needs to tap into what is already there.
At Rock West Composites in Salt Lake City, Utah, they know the value of skilled labor and good infrastructure. They say McLaren’s choice to move chassis production to Sheffield makes complete sense. McLaren needs highly skilled workers and the right environment to make their expansion plans work. They have what they need in Sheffield.
Rising from the Ashes
Will Sheffield rise from the ashes left behind when the steel industry collapsed? McLaren seems to think so. They have every intention of making Sheffield not only the hub of their carbon fiber chassis production, but also a research center for making their sports cars even better.
Let’s hope Sheffield does rise from the ashes. Success there could translate into similar projects in other former steel cities. Some of those cities might become tomorrow’s carbon fiber hubs, supporting a variety of industries turning to carbon fiber as a steel replacement.
