High performance composites influence the agenda in the Automotive Industry
From a historical perspective, a mixed set of factors have affected the composites industry, crossing socio-political, technology, marketing and environmental issues. Here, Philippe Michaud, Huntsman Advanced Materials European Technology Director discusses how the market has evolved to place high performance composite technologies firmly on the agenda as a key enabler in the automotive sector.
Why composites?
Composite technologies have come a long way in a relatively short time and have made high performance composites an extremely attractive option for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) because they are lightweight and there is always a need for lighter weight in transportation.
Commercial objectives
Focused on producing high quality, complex and lightweight parts, the automotive industry is addressing how to strike a balance between speeding up parts manufacturing, reducing investment costs and producing excellent results. Processing capabilities have thereby fallen in the spotlight with the onus on the requirement for better, high performance technologies.
In the automotive sector, lowering vehicle weight is driven by the need to create overall better fuel efficiencies and enhanced power to weight ratios. Recent years have seen high levels of activity in the global electric vehicles (EV) industry. However, electric vehicles having particularly heavy batteries, efforts are focused on how to make them as light weight as possible in order to achieve a better performance.
Government directives did originally spur initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, but what we’re seeing now is both pull from the market and push from the OEMs, focused on the delivery of enhanced vehicle performance. By and large, these influencers are mostly responsible for the significant growth in the composites market today.
Composite innovations
Huntsman has recently been involved in a number of ground-breaking composite projects in the automotive space, working with a number of global manufacturers. For example, last year we worked with the Volkswagen Group on the production of the first carbon fibre chassis from Lamborghini on the Aventador LP700-4.
Lamborghini produced the bulk of the chassis using an Araldite® resin system especially adapted for the company’s ‘RTM-Lambo’, an RTM processing technique. In combination with the Araldite® resin, the ‘RTM-Lambo’ technique created a robust and lightweight chassis capable of delivering an excellent power-to-weight ratio. It also offers a cost effective solution for the repeatable production of structural parts with mechanical and thermal performances comparable to autoclaved prepregs.
As the first production carbon fibre chassis from Lamborghini, the Aventador is widely recognised as being steps ahead of any other production chassis available on the market today.
Composites today
More and more manufacturers are evaluating their carbon composites processing methods and realising the benefits of high speed Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) for “part a minute” production.
Huntsman’s resin systems for high pressure Resin Transfer Molding (HP-RTM) and compression molding are already proving their ability to offer advanced processing properties and significant production time savings for direct processing, with the former enabling production cycles as short as five minutes and the latter providing even shorter cycles of less than a minute.
There are differences in opinion across the automotive industry concerning just how much weight can be saved, but insight and the widespread adoption of this innovative technology shows that when processed accurately, significant weight savings and the associated benefits of enhanced power-to-weight ratios will follow.
www.huntsman.com/advanced_materials
Patricia Albisser
Huntsman Advanced Materials (Switzerland) GmbH
K-401.5.77
Klybeckstrasse 200
CH-4057 Basel
Switzerland
Phone: +41-61-299 2664
Fax: +41-61-966 8130
