For years scientists and engineers sought a material that was strong like steel, but lightweight enough to use in automotive parts and other applications. Steel, although strong, holds a considerable amount of mass and this weight adds to cost in all aspects of production. Transportation and handling of heavy steel can be costly, never-minding the end consumers ever-increasing demands to make vehicles more fuel efficient. For these reasons a better alternative to steel was created. It was called Carbon Fiber, and it’s beginning to change the automotive industry.
In the late 1950s, in a plant located outside of Cleveland, Ohio, engineers envisioned a process of creating a fiber stronger than steel but just a fraction of the weight. They began to heat strands of rayon until they carbonized, creating a fiber which contained about 20 carbon. The process was later improved in Japan by using polyacrylonitrile in place of rayon, increasing the carbon content to 55. It also had a strength five-times that of steel, yet weighing two-thirds less. Mass produced in England less than a decade later, carbon fibers were soon used in both aeronautics and vehicles.
Today carbon fibers are used in a variety of automotive applications. Replacing traditional steel with carbon fibers can reduce a vehicles weight by as much as 60; This can translate to a 30 reduction of fuel consumption and emission of greenhouse gasses. In today’s society, anything that can be done to cut back on fuel costs and decrease pollution is a step worth taking. Carbon fiber is quickly becoming a hit.
However, there are some drawbacks to using carbon fiber. First, it is expensive. Most cars built with carbon fiber cost close to 100,000. Carbon fiber costs around 10 per pound, ten times that of steel. Then there’s the issue of disposal. Carbon fiber cannot be melted down and recycled like steel, it loses it’s strength after it’s melted down.
So perhaps it will be some time before we see the first economical 100 carbon fiber automobile. And perhaps it will be a while longer until carbon fiber will be as recyclable as aluminum cans. But with technology on the gain, we can rest assured carbon fiber will be a new way of life for auto parts.
