At this year’s Composites UK Industry Awards, the ‘Innovation in Design’ award was won by Axon Automotive Ltd for its lightweight carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) Axontex 3D beam car chassis design.
The company’s composite technology has been used to make lightweight CFRP chassis prototypes for the new Hyundai Intrado hydrogen powered crossover concept car.
The Intrado’s chassis is made up entirely of molded parts fabricated using Axon Automotive’s patented Axontex structural beam composite technology and Crestapol 1250LV infusion resin. The part is vacuum assisted resin transfer molded (VARTM) around Axon’s proprietary 3D beam design, which combines woven carbon fiber braided tubing around low density polyethylene (LDPE) preforms that foam and expand during infusion. Using this design and process, which can be fully automated, Axontex can be used to form both straight and curved components to create complex shaped assembled structures.
All of the chassis and frame CFRP components are robotically bonded together by Axon using Crestabond M1-20 primer-less structural adhesive, with no mechanical fixings needed. The result is an automotive chassis with the strength and stiffness of a similar steel structure, but with over 60% saving in the overall chassis weight.
This story is reprinted from material from Axon, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
