Researchers halfway to cutting carbon fiber costs by 90%
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/plants-manufacturing/" rel="tag">Plants/Manufacturing</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/tech/" rel="tag">Technology</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/bmw/" rel="tag">BMW</a></p><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2014-bmw-i3-live/"><img alt="BMW i3" data-credit="AOL" data-credit-link-back="undefined" data-mep="505582" src="http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/GLOB/crop/1280x849+0+55/resize/628x417!/format/jpg/quality/85/http://o.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/35469f1748ad6c4bce2233aa1 5390d06/200912838/bmw-i3-reveal-nyc-01.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/tag/carbon+fiber/">Carbon fiber</a> has been utilized for decades to build racecars, as a means to cut weight while maintaining strength. But until recently, the space-age material has been largely absent from the street on anything but supercars because of the expense to use it. Recently, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/bmw/">BMW</a> signaled a major shift in that trend when it starting using carbon fiber reinforced plastic panels on the <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/bmw/i3/">i3</a> and <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/bmw/i8/">i8</a>. This relatively small scale start might be just the beginning; the German company believes that a breakthrough to inexpensively manufacture the lightweight stuff is just on the horizon.<br />
<br />
MAI Carbon Cluster Management GmbH counts BMW, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/audi/">Audi</a>, Airbus, the German government and many other organizations as supporters, and <a href="http://europe.autonews.com/article/20141009/COPY/310099953/bmw-backed-researchers-close-in-on-cheaper-carbon-fiber">it's researching how to make carbon fiber cheaper to produce</a>, according to <em>Automotive News Europe</em>. The company thinks it can reduce costs by 90 percent in the near future. "We've certainly reached a halfway point on our cost-cutting target for suitable carbon-fiber parts," said project head Klaus Drechsler to <em>Automotive News Europe</em>.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, it isn't entirely clear just what MAI Carbon is doing to make such a huge leap possible. However, a recent post on the company's website <a href="http://www.mai-carbon.de/index.php/de/8-news/235-die-schokoladenseite-des-carbons">talks about a new form a carbon fiber using a thermoplastic matrix that could be cured in less than three minutes</a>. That's compared to about <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/27/manufacturing-advances-bring-carbon-fiber-closer-to-mass-product/">90 minutes in the traditional process with an autoclave</a>.<br />
<br />
The news of cheaper carbon fiber is especially welcome to companies like BMW <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/13/bmw-boeing-weave-agreement-on-carbon-fiber-recycling-research/">that are already pushing its use forward</a>. The automaker is <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/13/bmw-carbon-fiber-investment/">already investing $100 million to triple capacity</a> at its Moses Lake, WA, joint venture factory through 2015, and promises to bring the lightweight material to more models in the future.<p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/15/researchers-halfway-cutting-carbon-fiber-costs-90-percent/">Researchers halfway to cutting carbon fiber costs by 90%</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:30:00 EST. Please see our <a href="/rss-term-of-use/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/15/researchers-halfway-cutting-carbon-fiber-costs-90-percent/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/20977283/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/15/researchers-halfway-cutting-carbon-fiber-costs-90-percent/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

أكثر...