The Significance of Carbon Materials in the Sports Car Industry Today
Car makers have a lot of things to consider before they complete the car designing process. Some of these factors include the weight, the quality, the strength and ease and convenience of repair and construction.
Most importantly, they need to consider the material to use throughout the design and manufacture process. At the present time, there are lots of available materials that car-makers can use for their vehicles. There are times that they combine a range of materials to achieve their goal.
Whatever material used in the manufacture of a car, car makers will have to choose for the right one. Each of the materials used in the car industry today comes with its specific benefits. What about the carbon material? What role does it play in today’s sports car industry?
Carbon Material in the Manufacture of Sports Car
Carbon is considered to be the most fashionable option for the automotive elite’s. This can also be the best material to use in many several ways. The most common type is known as the carbon fiber. This is a fiberglass with its small carbon strands and is embedded in a fibrous mat. These are sealed by a resin or plastic.
Carbon fibre is popularly used in the chassis tub of Alfa Romeo 4Cs and in F1 cars. As this is sealed completely with a resin or plastic, carbon can also be mated with ceramic material. It is also used in car brake disks.
As a recognized and well-used car material, carbon is known for its strength which is proven to be stronger than the steel. It is also several times lighter than the steel. With this drawback, this is even more expensive than the rest. This is the reason why carbon is only featured on the world’s most expensive cars.
Significance Today
Dating back in 2012, the new federal fuel-efficiency rules were introduced. The new rule stated that by 2025, automakers must meet the fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon. Although this can be quite hard to achieve, the Energy Department states that it is still possible. This is also by means of reducing the weight of a car by at least 10%. This implementation will help improve the fuel economy by 6-8%.
Presently, the Energy Department also stated that 3 technologies can help achieve the goal of lightening vehicles. These three technologies are known as the aluminum, high-strength steel and carbon fiber composites.
Such project was allocated with $8 million budget. The budget also went to 2 federal laboratories; Caterpillar, General Motors and Ford. In the same year, Ford, announced that they will collaborate with the Dow Automotive Systems. The collaboration involved the development of lower-cost fibre composites for mass production. The project was also estimated to reduce car weight by 750 pounds.
Presently, Porsche is the top company that continues to use carbon parts in some of their car models. Among these models include of the 911 GTR RS, 918 Spyder and 919 Hybrid. However, they still have a different plan for the future. This involves the combination of different car material such as the carbon for bigger production volumes. They further emphasized that by combining the car materials, creating economic lightweight design is possible!
