The Future Use of Structural Composite Materials in the Automotive Industry
The future use of structural composite materials in the automotive industry
Enrico Mangino
Centro Ricerche Fiat, Strada Torino 50, 10043 Orbassano (TO), Italy enrico.mangino@crf.it Joe Carruthers
NewRail, School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering, University of
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK joe.carruthers@ncl.ac.uk Giuseppe Pitarresi
Dipartimento di Meccanica, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze,
90128 Palermo, Italy pitarresi@dima.unipa.it Abstract: The automotive industry‟s use of structural composite materials began in the 1950s. Since those early days, it has been demonstrated that composites are lightweight, fatigue resistant and easily moulded to shape – in other words, a seemingly attractive alternative to metals. However, there has been no widespread switch from metals to composites in the automotive sector. This is because there are a number of technical issues relating to the use of composite materials that still need to be resolved including accurate material characterisation, manufacturing and joining.
This paper reports the findings of a recent European initiative that examined the future use of composite materials in the automotive sector.
The principal technical challenges that must be overcome in ten key areas relating to composite usage are reviewed. Furthermore, recommendations for future research priorities to overcome these challenges are presented.
1
Keywords: automotive, composite materials, future trends, research priorities. Biographical notes:
Enrico Mangino joined Centro Ricerche Fiat in 1991 with a thesis on the crash of multi-layered composites. Since then he has worked in the polymer manufacturing group supporting the design and production of plastic parts
(automotive and otherwise) through the numerical simulation of products and processes.
Joe Carruthers is the Materials and Structures Research Manager at
NewRail, the railway research centre at Newcastle University. He
Enrico Mangino
Centro Ricerche Fiat, Strada Torino 50, 10043 Orbassano (TO), Italy enrico.mangino@crf.it Joe Carruthers
NewRail, School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering, University of
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK joe.carruthers@ncl.ac.uk Giuseppe Pitarresi
Dipartimento di Meccanica, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze,
90128 Palermo, Italy pitarresi@dima.unipa.it Abstract: The automotive industry‟s use of structural composite materials began in the 1950s. Since those early days, it has been demonstrated that composites are lightweight, fatigue resistant and easily moulded to shape – in other words, a seemingly attractive alternative to metals. However, there has been no widespread switch from metals to composites in the automotive sector. This is because there are a number of technical issues relating to the use of composite materials that still need to be resolved including accurate material characterisation, manufacturing and joining.
This paper reports the findings of a recent European initiative that examined the future use of composite materials in the automotive sector.
The principal technical challenges that must be overcome in ten key areas relating to composite usage are reviewed. Furthermore, recommendations for future research priorities to overcome these challenges are presented.
1
Keywords: automotive, composite materials, future trends, research priorities. Biographical notes:
Enrico Mangino joined Centro Ricerche Fiat in 1991 with a thesis on the crash of multi-layered composites. Since then he has worked in the polymer manufacturing group supporting the design and production of plastic parts
(automotive and otherwise) through the numerical simulation of products and processes.
Joe Carruthers is the Materials and Structures Research Manager at
NewRail, the railway research centre at Newcastle University. He
Bibliography: Italy (28th June 2002): Mangino, E., „The Use of Composite Materials in Vehicle Design‟. Crowthorne, UK, (3rd October 2002): Lo Faro, C (5th November 2002): Kopp, J., „Composites for High Performance Automotive Applications‟. Workshop 5: Lightweighting of Composite Structures for Transportation Systems, Ottobrunn, Germany, (14th March 2003). Workshop 6: Joining Technologies for Composite Transportation Structures, Orbassano, Italy, (11th April 2003):