Carbon fiber composite material has excellent mechanical properties and is the only material whose strength will not decrease in a high-temperature inert environment above 2000 °C. As a high-performance material, carbon fiber composite material has its own characteristics of light weight, high strength, high elastic modulus, and fatigue resistance. It has been applied in many fields such as high-end medical care, aerospace, industry, automobiles, etc. Whether it is in the body, door or interior decoration, carbon fiber composite materials can be seen.
Automobile lightweight is the core technology and important development direction of the automobile industry. Carbon fiber composite materials can not only meet the demand for lightweight, but also have certain advantages in terms of vehicle safety. At present, carbon fiber composite materials have become more popular and promising lightweight materials in the automotive industry after aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, engineering plastics and glass fiber composites.
1. Brake pads
Carbon fiber is also used in brake pads because of its environmental protection and wear resistance, but products containing carbon fiber composite materials are very expensive, so at present this kind of brake pads are mainly used in high-end cars. Carbon fiber brake discs are widely used in racing cars, such as F1 racing cars. It can reduce the speed of the car from 300km/h to 50km/h within a distance of 50m. At this time, the temperature of the brake disc will rise above 900°C, and the brake disc will turn red due to absorbing a large amount of heat energy. Carbon fiber brake discs can withstand high temperatures of 2500°C and have excellent braking stability.
Although carbon fiber brake discs have excellent deceleration performance, it is not practical to use carbon fiber brake discs on mass-produced cars at present, because the performance of carbon fiber brake discs can only be achieved when the temperature reaches above 800 ℃. That is to say, the braking device of the car can enter the best working condition only after driving several kilometers, which is not suitable for most vehicles that only travel a short distance.
2. Body and chassis
Since carbon fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites have sufficient strength and stiffness, they are suitable for making lighter materials for major structural parts such as automobile bodies and chassis.
A domestic laboratory has also conducted research on the weight reduction effect of carbon fiber composite materials. The results show that the weight of the carbon fiber reinforced polymer material body is only 180kg, while the weight of the steel body is 371kg, a weight reduction of about 50%. And when the production volume is less than 20,000 vehicles, the cost of using RTM to produce a composite body is lower than that of a steel body.
3. Hub
The “Megalight—Forged—Series” wheel hub series launched by WHEELSANDMORE, a well-known German wheel hub manufacturing expert, adopts a two-piece design. The outer ring is made of carbon fiber material, and the inner hub is made of lightweight alloy, with stainless steel screws. The wheels can be about 45% lighter; taking the 20-inch wheels as an example, the Megalight—Forged—Series rim is only 6kg, which is much lighter than the 18kg weight of ordinary wheels of the same size, but carbon fiber wheels The cost of the car is very high, and a set of 20-inch carbon fiber wheels costs about 200,000 RMB, which currently only appears in a few top cars.
4. Battery box
The battery box using carbon fiber composite materials can realize the weight reduction of the pressure vessel under the condition of meeting this requirement. With the development of environmentally friendly vehicles, the use of carbon fiber materials to make battery boxes for fuel cell vehicles fueled by hydrogen has been accepted by the market. According to information from the Japan Energy Agency’s Fuel Cell Seminar, it is estimated that 5 million vehicles will use fuel cells in Japan in 2020.
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Post time: Apr-19-2023