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3-D printing can build insulated monocoque car bodies easily. Light bodies will come about as the existing wasteful and filthy engines we use will have to be replaced by superior propulsion units. If the auto companies do not come up with replacement voluntarily governments will force them to. EVs will need to be insulated to vastly reduce heating and cooling demands conserving the energy in the batteries.
Renault made plastic wings for some of their cars. You could push them in with your fingers. In a crash the wings were like paper, keeping the doors free to open.
Well this is not Europe and Renalt is a lot smaller than GM, in fact GM was going to buy Nissan at one time and Nissan owns Renault. The us federal will never force the big3 to do what you suggest, this is not a communist govt. all the things you are suggesting will never happen in my or my grandchildren life time. You cannot out price a product that only the rich can afford. 3D printers and ll that stuff you said tell that to your automakers over there in the UK, wait a min. The UK dose not have any UK automakers anymore, everyone owned by another country.
first off you dont need to design an all new chassis to use carbon fiber or fiberglass panels.
and yes engineers are always looking at different materials for use in automobiles. for instance as i noted earlier, ford used a polymer based plastic in some of their race engines in the 80s. the blocks and heads were made of the plastic, and the engines produced over 600hp, and ran well at the track.
as for the cost of retooling, rubbish, it wont come to the amount you are suggesting. it will likely be about 20% over what the automakers spend now a retooling for a new model year.
how do you assemble fiberglass or carbon fiber panels? are you seriously asking that question? i thought you worked on the assembly line at one time. spot welds are used in the chassis, and in some body panels, but these days they are switching to adhesives, similar to what would be used with fiberglass and carbon fiber panels. the adhesives are faster and easier to deal with than spot welding is, and they have a bit of time to adjust the panels before the adhesives set up, where is if you screw up with spot welding you have to scrap the assembly.
Boy you should go to Detroit and tell them that it's easy to build a car out of carbon fiber. Better yet show them how since you have all the answers. I'm a realist i have worked the assembly line I know how they work. Carbon fiber bodies cannot be made fast enough or cheap enough to be built on a car assembly line like they do today. Today they build on a massive scale 55 to 65 cars an hour 2 shifts and in some cases 3 shifts.
The next big thing will be automated or even fully autonomous cars, augmented with vehicle-to-vehicle communication that has the potential to virtually eliminate collisions.
I've wondered when this will become standard on all vehicles. And would the insurance companies fight this? Without wrecks, they have little business.
Boy you should go to Detroit and tell them that it's easy to build a car out of carbon fiber. Better yet show them how since you have all the answers. I'm a realist i have worked the assembly line I know how they work. Carbon fiber bodies cannot be made fast enough or cheap enough to be built on a car assembly line like they do today. Today they build on a massive scale 55 to 65 cars an hour 2 shifts and in some cases 3 shifts.
and while i dont have experience on an assembly line building cars, i do have a degree in automotive technology, and i have experience building and tuning race cars. i will grant that carbon fiber bodies are more labor intensive than fiberglass or metal bodies, but they can be built assembly line style. either for various parts and sub assemblies, or complete bodies as needed.
and by the way, i understand how an assembly line operates.
and while i dont have experience on an assembly line building cars, i do have a degree in automotive technology, and i have experience building and tuning race cars. i will grant that carbon fiber bodies are more labor intensive than fiberglass or metal bodies, but they can be built assembly line style. either for various parts and sub assemblies, or complete bodies as needed.
and by the way, i understand how an assembly line operates.
Ok and what would be the cost and is there enough carbon fiber to fulfill what the big 3 produce every year. And can the car bodies be produced at a speed as they are now. You have no experience building cars on a large scale that can be cost effective and be built cheap enough for the average american. Im sure the big wigs of the big 3 know this and thats why steel is still used.
Hers another reason for not building cars out of carbon fiber.
The Difficulties of Carbon Fiber
Only a few cars available at your local dealership use carbon fiber. The BMW M6 has some carbon fiber panels on its body, as does the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the Ford GT. The Audi R8 also includes some carbon fiber. What do all these cars have in common? They cost a lot of money -- most start above $100,000. It's rare to see a car with carbon fiber because it's expensive! Ten years ago, carbon fiber cost $150 a pound. Now, the price is around $10 a pound [source: Zoltek]. Steel, on the other hand, costs less than a dollar per pound. Many analysts say that for carbon fiber to make it into widespread use in cars, the price will have to drop to about $5 per pound [source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory]. Cost is the main hurdle carbon fiber will have to overcome before it can provide a viable energy solution.
The second hurdle is waste disposal. When a typical car breaks down, its steel can be melted and used to construct another car (or building, or anything else made of steel). Carbon fiber can't be melted down, and it's not easy to recycle. When it is recycled, the recycled carbon fiber isn't as strong as it was before recycling. Carbon fiber recycled from a car isn't strong enough to be used in building another car. That's a big issue. Having more cars use carbon fiber would save a lot of oil, but it could also generate a lot of waste.
As it stands now, carbon fiber could solve the oil crisis. It's lightweight, durable and safe. But it's also expensive and difficult to recycle. For now, it looks like carbon fiber is just going to be one of many solutions to the oil crisis. When combined with efficient engines, other, cheaper materials and a change in driving habits, carbon fiber is just one piece of the energy puzzle.
Last edited by Vannort54; 10-14-2014 at 12:41 PM..
They've come so far, but there's always room for improvement as our expectations of what constitutes "perfection" change with the times.
Materials: Less traditional steel, more lightweight alloys (see: 2015 Ford F-150)
Safety features: more sensor-based driver aids and collision prevention systems (see: lane departure and blind-spot warnings, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking)
Efficiency: More plug-in hybrid systems, less unnecessary idling, mild hybrid-type features such as regenerative braking becoming standard, even on cars not specifically marketed as hybrids.
Ok and what would be the cost and is there enough carbon fiber to fulfill what the big 3 produce every year. And can the car bodies be produced at a speed as they are now. You have no experience building cars on a large scale that can be cost effective and be built cheap enough for the average american. Im sure the big wigs of the big 3 know this and thats why steel is still used.
BMW is working on that, and has completed a brand new carbon fiber manufacturing plant in Washington State to handle mass production of CF bodies, as seen in the new BMW i3 and i8.
Not all for the better. I notice the progression in weight in certain models of interest and that is disturbing. More stress on the power train. Imagine a 4000lb pony car.
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