The CFRP automobile body project in Japan （碳纤维增强塑料车身项目在日本）.pdf

The CFRP automobile body project in Japan Ph.D. Akihiko Kitano Toray Industries, Inc. Ehime Plant. General Manager of Composite Materials Research Laboratories Eisuke Wadahara Toray Industries, Inc. Ehime Plant. Senior Research Engineer of Composite Materials Research Laboratories Ichiro Taketa Toray Industries, Inc. Ehime Plant. Research Engineer of Composite Materials Research Laboratories ABSTRACT RD of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composite Materials to Reduce Automobile Weight that is the 5-year project of NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), has been engaged since Oct. 2003. In this project, mass production and design technologies of CFRP automobile body made with continuous fiber fabric has been developed. This paper shows frame works of this project and some results. INTRODUCTION A strong demand for improving a fuel consumption of automobiles, which eventually contributes to reduce CO2 emission and to prevent global warming, is existed. In Europe, about 25% improvement of the fuel consumption until 2008 was set to goal. Also in Japan, various approaches for improving the fuel consumption have been worked on actively. One of the approaches is to reduce a weight of automobiles body. So far, automobile materials have been replaced from steel to aluminum. Moreover, plastics with and without reinforcement are being considered as possible automobile materials among automobile manufacturers. In April 2002, at Council for Science and Technology Policy, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) suggested the development of innovative materials, which is light and excellent in strength, to realize energy conservative and safer next generation automobile, as the priority subj ect for an enhancement of international