Industry’s First Mass Production Technologies help Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic to go Mainstream

Up to now carbon fiber-reinforced polymer were used extensively in high-end racing cars due to its high manufacturing cost. However, the material’s unprecedented strength-to-weight ratio as well as its low weight made it an essential material to use in high-performance racing automobiles. The high cost of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer, equipment, as well as relatively limited pool of expert individuals how are capable of working with it ,up to now has been a major factors in introducing the material in mass-produced cars.

The Carbon fiber-reinforced Polymer has a wide applications ranging from aerospace and automotive fields consumer equipment such as laptops, tripods, fishing rods to name a few. Introduction of Carbon fiber-reinforced Plastic (CFRP) in future EV vehicles has been in many car manufacturers agenda, where its use in automobiles body frame/ cabin frame as well as other parts can play a significant role in manufacturing next generation energy efficient EV vehicles. To respond to this challenge, Teijin Limited has announced new mass production manufacturing technologies for CFRP which significantly reduces the cycle time that is required for molding automotive cabin frame to just less than a minute, paving the way toward use of carbon fiber for mass produced automobiles as well as other types of products.

Teijin newly developed technologies produces three intermediate materials which are made of thermoplastic resin instead of conventional thermosetting resin for molding type of CFRP. In addition to this Teijin has developed such technologies for welding thermoplastic CFRP parts together as well as bonding CFRP with materials such as steel, both of which will help in reducing the use of metal in manufacturing processes. The three intermediate materials are; unidirectional intermediate which is an ultrahigh strength material in a certain direction, isotropic intermediate offering balance of shape flexibility and multidirectional strength and long-fiber thermoplastic pellet, a high-strength pellet made from carbon fiber which is ideal for injection molding of complex parts. Teijin in an effort to demonstrate its cutting-edge new technology has developed a conceptual electric vehicle (EV) featuring a cabin frame made entirely from thermoplastic CFRP, weighing only 47 kilograms, which is approximately one fifth the weight of a conventional automobile frame. This conceptual 4-seat EV is capable of speeding up to 60 km/h with a cruising range of 100 km, embodies Teijin’s vision of super lightweight EVs that are made with CFRP.