Plastic is no longer the preferred material for cars to lose weight
Plastic is no longer the preferred material for cars to lose weight
The auto industry is making progress on weight loss, but plastics and composites are no longer listed as the best alternative materials.
This is the result of an annual survey of the car industry by dupont and Wards Auto.
According to the survey, 49 percent of respondents put less emphasis on reducing their fuel efficiency. The survey was commissioned by the Penton market research company and presented results at the automotive research center management conference in travers.
Nearly half of the 880 respondents worked in car components or parts makers, and a quarter of them worked for carmakers.
Surprisingly, the engine efficiency program has lagged behind the weight loss, with only 39 percent of respondents saying.
Dupont automotive technical director Jeff Sternberg said in a telephone interview, "our results show that the personage inside course of study thinks over the past few years to improve engine efficiency and electrification is the most important, it has received more attention. But in this year's survey, the importance of weight loss was put at the top of our list, which surprised us."
Other insiders are also talking about the trend. CAR researcher Greg Schroeder discussed the limitations of transmission technology at the meeting on August 4.
He said: "I think that is obvious to all, so far, the auto industry to improve automotive fuel economy is doing very well, but the difficulty will increase significantly in the future, in this respect, I think one day, our focus will no longer be limited to the drive train. And it will involve reducing friction, low rolling resistance tyres and, of course, reducing weight, which are the major solutions to fuel economy."
Says Sternberg, weight loss is becoming more and more attention, in part due to a variety of high-profile weight loss program, such as the new ford F - 150 and the BMW i3, these two models are lightweight materials to replace the traditional materials, greatly reducing the vehicle weight. The success of the new polymer has also helped.
By using plastics and composites, he says, the car has achieved significant weight loss, and people are starting to realize that there may be more weight loss than previously known. Opportunities for this are increasingly emerging.
The survey showed that aluminum has become the exclusive preferred material in various lightweight materials.
In last year's survey, the engineering plastics family was tied for the top spot with aluminium, but in this year's survey, aluminium was back in the lead with 27 per cent of votes, compared with 13 per cent for engineering plastics. Another 8 percent chose advanced composite materials as the preferred option for weight loss, and 16 percent chose multi-material solutions.
In addition to the use of aluminum in projects like the f-150, Sternberg said, the lead has to be attributed in part to the auto industry's familiarity with aluminum.
"I think one of the challenges for the car industry is the strangeness of new materials, especially in composite materials," he said. It's going to involve all kinds of operations and supply chains, which is not as familiar to the car industry as it is to metals."
"Plastic and composite materials are relatively new, so I think the industry's initial response is: first try we know how to deal with the material type, if they are not feasible or have a better choice besides, it is often seen in plastic and composite scenario, in this case they may enable new materials, and do further research."
Aluminum remains the preferred material for car weight loss over the next few years and decades, industry experts have said. What about plastic?
"I think some of the plastics will have a chance, especially the composites," Sternberg said. As applications grow and need to be scaled up to meet demand, the car industry will be more comfortable with its value chain, including factors such as ensuring availability. I think time will be an important consideration."
