Today, Coreco is introducing the use of carbon fiber in car bodies and the advantages of carbon fiber cars.
Since the first all-composite body car was introduced in 1953, the use of composites in automobiles has been increasing. Today, with the advent of lightweighting, the use of carbon fiber composites in automobiles is increasingly sought after. Carbon fiber composites (CFRP), because of their low mass, high strength, high rigidity, and good creep and corrosion resistance, are the most ideal lightweight materials for automotive applications. Nowadays, we can find carbon fiber composites in various places such as car bodies, tail fins, car chassis, hoods and car interiors. The advantages of carbon fiber cars are also obvious.
- Carbon fiber cars are safer
Carbon fiber composites actually have higher rigidity and impact resistance than metal materials. From the point of view of mechanical properties, when the car is designed, the weight is reduced with full consideration of the forces on the components, and rigidity is not sacrificed to reduce weight. The light weight of the body can make the whole vehicle's center of gravity shift down, which improves the car's handling stability, and the vehicle's operation will be safer and more stable. Carbon fiber composites have an excellent energy absorption rate, with a crash energy absorption capacity six to seven times that of steel and three to four times that of aluminum, which further ensures the safety of the vehicle. In a carbon fiber body car, the carbon fiber car body will fragment and break in a collision, absorbing energy and protecting passengers. Therefore, carbon fiber cars are more secure in terms of safety performance.
- Lightweight of carbon fiber car
In addition to safety, lightweight is another significant advantage of carbon fiber cars. In 1992, General Motors introduced an ultra-light concept car, which was made of carbon fiber composite material, and the overall body mass was 191kg.
- Comfort of carbon fiber car
The soft and tensile property of carbon fiber has a good improvement on the noise and vibration control of the whole car, which will significantly improve the comfort of the car. Therefore, the comfort of carbon fiber cars will be greatly increased.
Let's talk about the application of carbon fiber in the body parts:
1.Application in car body and chassis As carbon fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites have enough strength and stiffness, they are the lightest material for manufacturing major structural parts such as car body and chassis. It is expected that the application of carbon fiber composites can reduce the mass of the car body and chassis by 40% to 60%, which is equivalent to 1/3 to 1/6 of the mass of the steel structure. common racing car body, part of the modified car body are for this purpose, in addition to the visual effect is very cool.
2. Application of brake pads Carbon fiber is also used in brake pads because of its environmental and wear-resistant characteristics, but products containing carbon fiber composites are expensive, so this brake pad is also mainly used in high-end cars. Carbon fiber brake discs are widely used in competition cars, such as Formula 1 cars. It can reduce the speed of the car from 300 km/h to 50 km/h within a distance of 50 m. At this time, the temperature of the brake disc will rise to more than 900 ℃, and the disc will turn red because it absorbs a lot of heat energy. Carbon fiber brake discs can withstand high temperatures of 2,500 ℃ and have excellent braking stability.
3. Wheel application, the German wheel manufacturing experts launched the wheel series, take 2-piece design, the outer ring for the carbon fiber material to build, the inner hub for the lightweight alloy, with stainless steel screws, the same size than the general wheel mass of about 40% lower. The RX-X wheel made of CFRP by Kahm (UK) has a mass of only 6 kg and can be driven at high speed with minimal radial inertia. The world's lightest carbon fiber/magnesium wheel developed by the British company DYMAG is composed of carbon fiber wheel mesh and magnesium brake disc 2 parts, and connected with special hardware of titanium plating.
4. Drive shaft applications, automotive drive shaft force situation is relatively complex, especially to withstand a large torque, taking fully into account the carbon fiber reinforced composite anisotropy, high specific strength and relatively low specific modulus characteristics, so that the use of carbon fiber reinforced composite drive shaft can replace metal products to meet the requirements of use. Carbon fiber drive shaft not only reduces the weight by 60%, but also has better fatigue resistance and durability.
