TPI Composites Inc has been awarded a US$3 million program by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) to design, develop, and demonstrate a lightweight hybrid composite door.
TPI will be leading a team of industry and academic participants with knowledge in vehicle design and composite materials, including Creative Foam Corporation, Hexion Inc., KraussMaffei, SAERTEX USA, LLC, Center for Composite Materials at the University of Delaware, and a global automotive OEM.
‘We are excited about the opportunity to design, develop and validate the materials and manufacturing technologies that can transition lightweight structural composites into the high volume automotive mainstream,’ said Steve Lockard CEO & President TPI Composites.
Part of the challenge of widespread composite adoption in automotive applications is the ability for composite structures to achieve cost targets and high volume production rates. The composite door program will focus on meeting all structural, safety and noise, vibration, and harshness performance goals while addressing cycle time and cost constraints.
This story is reprinted from material from TPI Composites, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
