Auto-use carbon fiber development speeds up in Japan
Technology ( 8 )
TOKYO —
Major Japanese textile makers are stepping up development of carbon fiber materials for use in automobiles to reduce body weight and raise fuel efficiency for next-generation vehicles.
Demand for carbon fibers, which weigh one-quarter of steel but are 10 times stronger, is expected to grow among automakers as they look to enhance measures to combat global warming and deal with sky-high crude oil prices.
Toray Industries Inc. estimates that by using carbon fibers in components such as chassis, roof and hood, the weight of a 1,380-kilogram passenger car can be cut by 400 kilograms.
The key obstacle to the development is the hardness of carbon fibers, which makes molding and processing difficult, time-consuming and costly.
Because carbon fibers cost several thousand yen per kilogram, against 100 yen for steel sheets, their use has been limited mostly to luxury and racing cars.
As a result of research efforts by makers including Toray and Nissan Motor Co., the processing time for carbon fibers used in hood has been shortened to less than 10 minutes from 160 minutes. But officials say further improvement is needed so that carbon fibers can find applications in a wider range of automobiles.
In June, Toray launched a research and development base in Nagoya, central Japan, planning to start full-scale operations in September, in order to reduce costs and processing time further.
Teijin Ltd. acquired composite materials maker GH Craft Ltd. in July and built a R&D center on the premises of the subsidiary, aiming to overtake Toray through cooperation with its carbon fiber unit Toho Tenax Co.
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DXXJP
I have been using carbon in my designs for around 10 years. When ever I asked about carbon epoxies years ago I always got the wakaranai. About 5 years ago I could finally source product in japan but they wanted almost triple the going rate. As it is now a one square meter of carbon cloth still costs over 10,000 yen at wholesale. I sure hope this helps bring down the price. The SLR is almost completely carbon, Some of the new BMWs have carbon roofs, when is japan going to step up. This isnt a lenghly prosses and it doesn't take a ton of expertise but the trick is a autoclave for production and thorough hardness.
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Beelzebub
The article should have also mentioned that the price of steel has been soaring.
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JohnBecker
I can certainly understand the use of carbon fiber in body panels. But the chassis? I think I'd be a bit cautious about making a chassis from a material that shatters rather than deforms.
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mojibake
"when is Japan going to step up" -- Hmm, that's funny; perhaps Boeing would beg to differ. Of all the places they could have sourced the carbon fibre wings for the 787, they chose this backwater. Odd, in light of your comment.
Or perhaps, you simply weren't asking the right people?
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Mark_McCracken
Isn't carbon fiber similar to asbestos? I know carbon fiber has high tensile strength when pulled, but I've crushed carbon fiber with just my thumb from rubbing it. What I got was a blackened thumb with what looked like graphite. I'm guessing that was little slivers of carbon, similar to asbestos, and likely just as dangerous if inhaled. The main difference seems to be asbestos is easier to get airborne and inhaled. DXXJP, you seem to know more about this so correct me if I'm wrong.
Will 2050 be filled with trail lawyers filing lawsuits multi-billion dollar lawsuits to remove carbon fiber the way they did asbestos in the 1990s?
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Freespeech
Could someone say something about the full lifecycle environmental impact of carbon fiber vs steel, aluminum, etc ? I mean, total energy needed from initial production of the raw material to final recycling, and related CO2 release ?
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DXXJP
Well carbon is non recyclable in the normal sense. You can cut new shapes from panels and reuse them but to say melt it down and reuse it its not possible at the moment with out a lot of caustic chemicals. Carbon also comes in different weaves and thicknesses like material. It gets its strength from the woven fabric being soaked in epoxy resin and then chemically cured.
I have dry carbon plates that will dull a saw blade, it will also shoot sparks when ground. You can make a chassis out of it but its very time consuming as you have to mold it and vacuum bag or autoclave the air out of it. As for door panels and fenders it cant be beat. It wont dent, has more tensile than aluminum or steal pound for pound, and it won't rust. However with out proper UV protection it can discolor, and or topical degrade by tarnishing.
Its no more a carcinogenic then your fiberglass bath tub or shower unit once its cured.
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Smythe
Some m/c makers for their road racing bikes, will use carbon fiber, you will also find fuel tanks made out of carbon fibre. Without question it is very light, but cost is almost beyond the reach of the normal m/c riders.
I honestly feel there is a lot more we can learn about carbon fiber for anything that is motor driven.
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