A new inventory of lightweight automotive materials, who are you looking forward to?

Global energy and environmental protection issues have become increasingly prominent, and the process of car lightening has attracted much attention. Relevant data show that there is a direct relationship between light weight and energy consumption.

For every 100 kilograms of reduction in curb weight of conventional fuel vehicles, fuel consumption per 100 kilometers can be reduced by 0.3-0.6 liters, and carbon oxide emissions can be reduced by 5-8 grams. For pure electric vehicles, for every 100 kilograms of reduction in curb weight, it is possible to increase the driving range by 10%. Save battery costs 15%-20%. The application of lightweight materials is the most direct and effective way to achieve a lightweight vehicle.

China has set a target of reducing the average fuel consumption of passenger vehicles to 5.0 litres/100 kilometers by 2020. The “Made in China 2025” proposes energy saving and new energy vehicles as the key areas of development and regards lightweighting as one of the key development directions for the automotive industry. Lightweight environmental protection has become an urgent requirement for the current automotive companies.

Glass fiber reinforced nylon

The new resonant cavity of the BMW i8 sports car uses DuPont? Zytel® PLUS95G35 glass fiber reinforced nylon is the raw material. This material reduces the noise of two turbocharged engines, resulting in a more pleasant driving experience, while the light weight and high strength properties of the material also help reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Bioplastics

XDPP STR-03LQ19005, an innovative biomass lightweight materials solution, is a leader in China's modified polymer composites.

The biomass filling material adopts 10%-50% different content of straw-filled polypropylene, which not only can effectively reduce the carbon footprint in the production process, but also has a smaller component density compared with traditional petroleum-based products. The simple beam has higher notched impact strength, comparable bending strength and tensile strength, and exhibits better flowability and processability, significantly shortening the production cycle.

In the case of uniform mixing of materials, the finished product has higher flame retardancy, and can reduce the weight of the parts by about 20%. In addition, after the components have reached the end of their useful life, they can be completely degraded, thereby minimizing the impact on the environment.

At present, Xinda's XDPP STR-03LQ19005 biomass material has been used by a number of domestic automotive OEM manufacturers, parts and components manufacturers for the column guards and door panels of different models.

Polycarbonate (PC)

Polycarbonate (PC) has a transparent, good impact resistance, thermal distortion resistance, and good weather resistance and high hardness.

Covestro launched an electric concept car named "K2016" at the K-Expo in Germany last year. The windows and roofs above the shell and waistline of the car body are all made of polycarbonate material. It can be made translucent. Or fully transparent.

Polycarbonate manufactures particularly clear car windows with its special features that can be used for side and rear windows, panoramic canopies and even the entire rear hatch. The parts thus produced are as much as 50% lighter than those made of glass.

Carbon fiber composite material

Carbon fiber is a new material with excellent mechanical properties. Its specific gravity is less than 1/4 of that of steel. Carbon fiber digital material conforms to the material's tensile strength generally over 3500 MPa, 7-9 times that of steel, and its tensile elastic modulus is 2300. -43000MPa is also higher than steel.

It not only has the inherent characteristics of carbon materials, but also the flexibility of textile fibers. The density of carbon fiber is generally 1750kg/m3, so low density makes it optimistic about the automotive industry.

One of the characteristics of this material is its light weight. The most intuitive change in the application of the car is the reduction in the weight of the vehicle. The application of carbon fiber material achieves better results in maintaining a comfortable configuration of colleagues. The application of carbon fiber composite materials enables The weight of the body and the bottom of the disc is 40-60%, equivalent to 1/3-1/6 of the weight of the steel structure.

Mitsubishi Chemical's carbon fiber composite SMC material was selected by Toyota to be used in the new release of the Lexus luxury cars LC500 and LC500h in March of this year for the production of interior door panels and trunk panels.

The SMC sheet developed by Mitsubishi Chemical is a CFRP intermediate material obtained by cutting carbon fibers into several centimeters in length and immersing them in a resin. After the SMC has undergone rapid processing (usually in 2-5 minutes), parts required for production can be obtained through a molding process.

Compared with the prepreg molding process, the SMC process has the advantage of forming complex parts, giving the engineer more flexible product design capabilities.

Other composite materials

The Volkswagen-manufactured PoloRWRC (World Rally car) road test version of the hood features ThyssenKrupp's Litecor products. This product has reduced the weight of the entire hood by 30% and carbon dioxide emissions by 25%.

Litecor uses two layers of 0.2-0.3 mm thick steel plate plus a 0.3-1 mm thick "special thermoplastic mixed fiber" film core layer. The inner core substrate is polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon, or composites thereof, and includes There is "at least one layer of fiber reinforced plastic."

The Litecor board has at least 14 potential uses, mainly for large flat panels and high-strength body parts, including roofs, doors, tailgates, and hoods. Compared with the all-steel design, bonnets made with Litecor panels are currently 21% more expensive and 7% more expensive, but the cost is much better than aluminum.