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Researchers turn corner in drive to build plastic cars

plastic car
A plastic car, because of its lighter weight, can get more miles per galloon than a steel car  

February 25, 1999
Web posted at: 11:59 a.m. EST (1659 GMT)

KETTERING, Ohio (CNN) -- A breakthrough in the manufacturing process of composite materials could help lead to the production of vehicles capable of getting 80 miles to a gallon of gas.

Cars and trucks are essentially steel on wheels, which makes them strong and durable -- but heavy. Manufacturers have been experimenting with replacing the steel in vehicles with lighter-weight plastics or composite materials, but the costs of the processes have been prohibitive.

But researchers from the Automotive Composites Consortium of the United States Council for Automotive Research said they have developed a process that could dramatically cut the costs of using composites in cars.

factory process
In the P4 process, robots spray glass fibers onto a screen to make a preformed shape that is placed in a mold that eventually turns out a composite part  

Working at the National Composite Center near Dayton, Ohio, researchers are using robots to build composite automotive frames through a method dubbed P4 (programmable powder preform process).

In the first stage of the P4 process, the robots spray short strands of glass fiber onto a screen to create a preformed shape. The fiberglass "preform" is then lifted out and placed into a mold. Liquid resin is injected into the preform and solidifies to create the composite part.

"In other processes, you have to trim that preform, which can be a tedious, costly method," explained Norm Chavka of the automotive consortium.

A pickup bed made through the P4 process weighs just 50 pounds -- about a third less than a steel truck bed -- while holding up better than a steel truck bed in crash tests, according to the National Composite Center.

While more work remains to be done to perfect the process, the U.S. Air Force was impressed enough with the preliminary results to contact the NCC for information on how to apply the P4 technology to building composite aircraft.


Correspondent Ed Garsten contributed to this report.

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