[original website of China Plastics Machinery Network] the lightweight of automobile is to reduce the servicing quality of automobile as much as possible on the premise of ensuring the strength and safety performance of automobile, so as to improve the power of automobile, reduce fuel consumption and reduce exhaust pollution. It can be said that it is not easy for the automotive industry to implement strict emission regulations. Obviously, lighter solutions are needed. With the progress of technology, the realization of lightweight is being realized step by step, which has also become a good opportunity for the development of the plastic industry. Fiber reinforced composite (FRP) is a composite material formed by the winding, molding or pultrusion of reinforced fiber materials, such as glass fiber, carbon fiber and aramid fiber, with the matrix material. It has the characteristics of light weight, high strength and heavy load, and plays a great role in realizing the lightweight of automobile.
It is very important to realize lightweight fiber reinforced composites for automobiles
Fiber reinforced composites are key
Some studies have shown that the range of new energy vehicles with a total weight of 1550kg is 186km. If the total weight can be reduced to 1011kg, the range can be increased to 275.5km. Can new materials bring new dawn to automobile lightweight?
At the project achievement conference of "Research on innovation and development strategy of high-performance fiber and automobile lightweight technology" held by the Chinese Academy of engineering recently, the participating experts said that fiber reinforced composites are the lightweight materials with the best comprehensive performance and can be applied in engineering. High performance fibers, including carbon fibers, can not only be used in the emission reduction and consumption reduction of vehicles and other means of transport, but also improve the mechanical motion accuracy and help marine chemical equipment to prevent corrosion.
Fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites have great potential
The thermoplastic composite expert of polystrand company in Englewood, Colorado, USA has developed a GT Lite racing car. This special racing car aims to highlight the application of thermoplastic composites in auto parts. From May 28 to 29, SCCA held a racing race in the hometown of heroes at Pueblo racing Park in Pueblo, Colorado. With the completion of the sprint race and the race awarding ceremony, the third racing week of this car was successfully completed.
Polystrand believes that this is the first car with continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic (nylon) composite as the main suspension spring. The chairman of polystrand said: "Although thermoplastics have been used in automobiles for decades, we believe that the application of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites to main suspension springs is still the first initiative in the industry. Because fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites are easy to process, cost-effective and recyclable, we firmly believe that it will replace the current materials and play a great potential in automotive lightweight applications."
Carbon fiber reinforced resin matrix composites are very important
Not long ago, Toyota unveiled the Japanese version of its new Prius PHV equipped with CFRP tailgate at the "2016 Japan smart community Exhibition". The person in charge said that the tailgate of Toyota's new plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) "Prius PHV" scheduled to be launched in Japan, the United States and Europe in the autumn of 2016 adopts carbon fiber reinforced resin matrix composite CFRP. By changing the current aluminum alloy to CFRP, the weight of the tailgate is reduced by 3kg.
CFRP is used for the skeleton inside the tailgate. By using CFRP, the weight of the tailgate can be reduced by 3kg compared with the same shape products made of aluminum alloy. However, the rear suspension of the new model is longer, so the shape of the tailgate is larger than that of the current model, so the actual weight is basically the same as that of the current model.
(source: China Plastics Machinery Network)