Ford has announced it is partnering with materials and chemical giant Dow to research and develop economical carbon-fiber composites. Today, carbon fiber is hardly an inexpensive material—hence the reason it has largely remained in the realm of high-end road cars and race cars (such as Ford’s very own GT and Mustang Shelby GT500KR). It is also
time-consuming to produce, limiting its value to high-volume car manufacturers. Ford and Dow aim to reduce the cost and production time of carbon fiber so that it can be used more widely in passenger cars that cost less than houses.
Beginning now through 2020, Ford’s goal is to slash between 250 and 750 pounds from its next generation of cars and trucks, partially through the use of carbon fiber. The partnership is still in its infancy, so we’re told to expect the first fruits of the Dow mashup to appear closer to the end of this decade. While Dow itself does not produce carbon fiber, the company did form a joint venture last year with Turkish carbon-fiber manufacturer AKSA. So what’s Dow’s direct stake in all of this? Simple: It produces the epoxy resins that are used to hold the fibers together in carbon-fiber materials.
Neither Ford nor Dow yet knows what form its lower-cost carbon-fiber will take, or even what vehicle parts will be made of the stuff. Currently, woven carbon-fiber is among the most common composite of this type, but it is time-intensive and costly to produce. However, Lamborghini and Callaway (maker of golf clubs) recently partnered up and developed an automotive-grade forged composite for Lambo’s Sesto Elemento concept. The forged material is made up of discontinuous fibers and can be formed in a mold, rapidly speeding up the manufacturing process. For reference, Dow’s partner AKSA produces both woven carbon fiber as well as chopped carbon-fiber “chips”; similar chips are the key ingredient in Lambo’s forged composite.
Ford isn’t the first mainstream automaker to shack up with an outside company in order to further its carbon-fiber-based weight-reduction goals: Daimler already has paired with Toray, GM with Teijin, and BMW with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers. Of course, manufacturing processes may not be the most exciting stuff in autodom, but we’re certainly curious to see what the future holds for carbon fiber in mainstream automobiles.
caranddriver
