NUMBER 02 - Haas Automation, Inc.

and scheduling. The factory runs 3 shifts and 24 hours a
day: 10 Haas machines running through the night with just 5
operators on duty.
Seeing the Future
Whatever your art, part of the genius in creativity is vision.
Michelangelo looked at a lump of marble and saw the shape
of David, Goliath’s nemesis. All he had to do was chip away
the excess stone. There are more than 85,000 Haas CNC
machine tools installed around the world, a great many
being used by people with undeniable vision and creativity.
But, who amongst them could stand in front of a Haas VF-9
and see a racing car? That’s creativity of a different order.
Engineering genius!
“My aim,” says Vallet, with a flickering smile, “is to create
an entire racing car from just six solid blocks of aluminium, in
70 hours, using only four tools.”
| www.HaasCNC.com
Big blocks of aluminium, he admits, but just six, from
which he intends to machine all of the major and supporting
structural components, including the chassis, suspension,
mounting brackets, etc. No castings, no extrusions, just
solid parts.
“We’ll buy-in brakes, glass, wheels, that sort of thing,” he
says. “We’ll make the body from glass fibre, and we’ll use an
Alfa Romeo V6 engine, giving 340 hp. But otherwise, we’ll
make it here, on one Haas machine, in less than a week of
running two shifts a day.”
When M. Vallet says it, it sounds so simple. One of those
“why didn’t I think of that” moments. If he succeeds, and the
serious look in his eye says he intends to, he could be racing
the car in a year or two. Expected cost? €100,000 for a road-
going version; considerably more for something capable of
putting up a good fight at the famous 24 heures du Mans.