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Ford
Carbon fiber has been in use for many years in the automotive industry in the name of performance, but
Ford is trying to bring this lightweight material to the masses in the name of fuel economy. As a part of the German-funded Hightech.NRW project that began in 2010, Ford and Dow Automotive Systems have been trying to come up with a way to make carbon fiber feasible for everyday cars.
To demonstrate how important carbon fiber could be in non-performance-car applications, Ford installed a
carbon fiber reinforced plastic hood on the
Focus wagon shown above. Ford says carbon fiber is five times stronger than steel yet is just one-third the weight. This prototype hood weighs about half of what a conventional steel hood would weigh, and it still passes all of the safety needs required from a vehicle including dent resistance, pedestrian protection and during frontal crashes.
CFRP parts are apparently more time consuming to paint, so the project is also trying to find a faster way to finish the parts while keeping the same quality standards in place for steel components.
CFRP is an ideal material to use on
hybrids and
EVs, but Ford also has a plan to
reduce the weight of its vehicles by about 750 pounds each by the end of the decade. Currently, resources and production methods make carbon fiber an expensive material, so the biggest test will be getting these costs down to make it economical for use in a sub-$20,000 car. There's no word how much this prototype hood cost Ford to produce, but in a day where automakers are trying to squeeze every last pound out of a car's curb weight, carbon fiber could become a very important material in future vehicles.
Scroll down for Ford's press release.
Continue reading Ford working on mass-market carbon fiber components to save weight, improve efficiency
Ford working on mass-market carbon fiber components to save weight, improve efficiency originally appeared on
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Official: Ford working on mass-market carbon fiber components to save weight, improve
