CARBON FIBERS OFFER GREAT POTENTIAL IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Abstract

New materials, including the use of carbon fibers, play a critical role in reducing vehicle weights. With a lighter carbon fiber body, car manufacturers can build smaller cars with more efficient engines, bringing even more fuel savings. The main advantage offered by the automotive industry is their potential to reduce car masses, resulting in lower carbon emissions. Carbon fiber is the perfect material for automotive parts. Because of its high flexibility, carbon fiber can match any contour so it is used for any automotive application. It provides high strength and low weight, factors influencing automobile performance. Carbon fiber is comprised primarily of carbon atom which is lighter than metal atom making a part of carbon fibers much lighter than a metal part. This study provides more insight about carbon fiber and what makes this material different from others, as well as what benefits are possible by replacing metal parts with carbon fiber. For this purpose the properties of carbon fibers should be compared to traditional metals (steel, aluminum). Carbon fiber is stronger than steel but lighter than aluminum. The component made from carbon fiber of the same dimensions will be 50% lighter than an aluminum one and more than 5 times lighter than a steel one. Replacing steel components with carbon fiber would reduce the weight of most cars by 60 percent. That 60 percent drop in weight would, in turn, reduce that car's fuel consumption by 30 percent and cut greenhouse gas and other emissions by 10 to 20 percent. That's a huge fuel savings, even without changing the car's engine. A 10% reduction in vehicle weight can improve fuel efficiency by 6%–8% for conventional internal combustion engines, or increase the range of a battery-electric vehicle by up to 10%.