Composites are formed with the combination of two or more materials with different properties. The diverse materials work together to give the composite exclusive properties, but within the composite, different materials can be easily set apart.

Composites in Automotive Industry: Need of the Hour

With fossil fuels dominating the world’s energy consumption, transport being heavily reliant on oil. Furthermore, with automobiles contributing nearly 33% of the global emissions, the development of more sustainable cars is a priority.

For manufacturing these vehicles, automakers make use of composites to encapsulate battery modules or inclusions in strong carbon-fiber composites. As the requirement for EVs and hydrogen-fueled vehicles is on the rise, composite techs are growing to meet the needs of manufacturers for battery manufacturing. 

Furthermore, as conformist EV batteries are heavy and weight over 400 kgs with a metallic part accounting for 100 to 160 kgs, the necessity to use lightweight materials is real. 

Offering use of composites substantial benefits as opposed to metals: they reduce mass, rusting, offer greater freedom to design with improved space efficiency, improved flame resistance, faster assembly, and durability. Major companies like BMW are making use of composite materials for reducing the weight of battery modules owing to carbon fiber composites improving structural design for lightweight solutions.

Composites rise progressively on mid- and high-volume production models industry in applications for example injection molded thermoplastics for bumper frames, body panels and frames, structures of lift gates and seats, and are also put to use in in motorsports and luxury cars with particularly carbon fiber materials. Automakers like Mercedes and Porsche are adding an environmental dimension to their must-have standards of design, power and speed.

Natural Fiber Composites, Good for Reducing Emissions

The natural fiber composites provide a considerable reduction in total emissions and also a reduction in material emissions as opposed to the previous carbon fiber interior.  It was declared by Specialist Interior GT-Road Cars “We must all ensure that natural fiber composites are used more and more in the world of automotive components.” 

Furthermore, Porcher Industries, has introduced a new flax fiber-based thermoplastic composite range for automotive. These flax fibers are put to use as composite stiffeners and are made in France from development to weaving. They can be injection molded, thermos compressed, and are recyclable and sustainable because of snowballing requirements from automakers for composite materials that are eco-friendly, durable, attractive, and effective. 

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This new environmentally-friendly range is designed for dashboards, car door interiors, and other decorative elements. The diverse properties of flax dying, weave type, thickness, etc. allow to associate numerous inputs and provide quite a few possibilities.

Coming to a Conclusion

Composites have gained enormous popularity in the automotive industry for making a considerable contribution for coping up with automakers’ sustainability and weight reduction goals as they have a major role to play in making a vehicle lighter in weight, higher stiffness and thermal resistance properties making them a fine substitute of metal for battery.