Innovations FOR Lightweighting

Tough fuel-economy bogies for 2021 and beyond are driving new approaches to materials use, as seen in these examples.

Carbon-fiber reinforced polymers are the yin and yang of automotive lightweighting. Their strength-to-weight ratio handily outperforms chrome-moly steel, heat-treated aluminum alloys and magnesium. The aerospace industry gobbles the strong, stiff and light composite for use in wing spars and plans to use it in entire primary structures (SpaceX's next-gen heavy launch vehicle) in the future. But CFRP's slow part-to-part cycle rates, relatively complex processing and unique failure modes have kept it from being a player in volumes of more than 150,000 units per year for automotive structural applications.

Magna International and Ford Motor Co. believe CFRP holds promise in vehicle structures-specifically front and rear subframes. The companies are preparing to test a batch of prototype CFRP front subframes they developed collaboratively over the last two years. The prototype cradle, now being installed in Ford unibody development mules, is 34% lighter than a comparable steel fabrication typically used in passenger vehicles. It is 16% lighter than a comparable aluminum fabrication.