Automotive News Europe - September 2011 - 77

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

SUPPLIERS

CARBON FIBER ❙ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 76

carefully heated, then cooled. Using traditional techniques, it can take hours to make one part. Now, automakers are finding ways to speed the process. Lamborghini and Calla-way Golf Co. have partnered to develop a manufacturing process called “forged composites.” The new process, developed at the Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle, takes only three to five minutes to produce a part. Forged composites don’t require a traditional woven fabric. Instead, the carbonfiber threads are cut into 1- or 2-inch pieces, mixed with resin and put into a heated mold under high pressure. For automotive uses, the resulting part is slightly less strong than a carbon-fiber component produced with traditional techniques, but durable enough for most uses. Forged composites are well suited for underthe-skin parts such as suspension parts and monocoques. The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento concept, which debuted in September 2010 at the Paris auto show, demonstrates the joint venture’s forged composite technology. The car weighs about 450kg less than a Lamborghini Gallardo. But the real lure for the auto industry may be the reduced cost of forged composites. “In the next few years, you will see this material in a range of cars,” said Paolo Feraboli, who is an assistant professor of aerospace materials at the University of Washington and director of the Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory. “And you will see this material in cars that you would never have thought could be carbon fiber.” ‘Revolution in production’ But what will happen to the price of carbon? More and more suppliers are gearing up to cut costs and produce the high volumes that the industry will need. In July, 14 companies announced a consortium with U.S.-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop a carbon fiber that might cost as little as $5 to $7 (3.50 euros to 4.90 euros) a pound (0.45kg) – down from $15 to $20 a pound today. Oak Ridge is building a $35 million pilot plant that will produce up to 25 tons of carbon fiber a year. The partners will use the plant to test new raw materials. Participants include Dow Chemical Co., 3M Co. and France’s Faurecia SA. BMW’s carbon fiber partner is SGL Group of Germany. Next month BMW and SGL’s joint U.S. factory in Moses Lake, Washington, will start producing carbon fiber thread, which will be shipped to Germany for conversion into the fabric used to make parts. BMW and SGL formed a partnership to produce lightweight carbon parts in October 2009. The deal closed a few months after BMW investor Susanne Klatten emerged as a

robots. This is a revolution in the production of the automobile – comparable to the shift from the typewriter to the PC.” New materials Another advantage of carbon fiber over steel: it does not corrode. Carbon fiber is made from extremely thin strands of carbon thread twisted together and woven into a fabric. It’s expensive stuff because the raw polymer thread is made from costly petrochemicals, its conversion into fabric is energy-intensive, and the production of parts is time-consuming. But suppliers are starting to solve these problems one by one, and the Oak Ridge consortium could produce a breakthrough. To cut the cost of carbon fiber, the consortium will test a number of cheaper raw materials. One of the more promising materials is lignin, a cheap byproduct of the conversion of wood pulp into paper. Raymond Boeman, Oak Ridge’s program director of energy partnerships, said lignin might replace petroleum-based polymers used to make carbon fiber. These polymers account for nearly half the cost of carbon fiber, according to Boeman. A cheaper substitute such as lignin could slash those costs. But first, said Boeman, “We have to figure out how to purify the lignin so we can spin it into fiber.” Any breakthrough on lignin is several years off. In the meantime, manufacturers are finding other ways to cut costs. For example, manufacturers are experimenting with polyolefins – which also are derived from petroleum – as the raw material for carbon fiber thread. That could reduce the loss of raw materials to 15 percent during the carbonization process, although manufacturers would remain vulnerable to rising oil prices. And now Dow is getting into the act. In June, the Midland, Michigan, chemical company formed a joint venture with Akrilik Kimya Sanayii AS of Turkey to produce carbon fiber. Akrilik Kimya Sanayii is the world’s largest producer of acrylic fibers; it started manufacturing carbon fiber in 2008. Boeman notes that Dow, the world’s largest producer of polyolefins, has joined the Oak Ridge consortium. The biggest established suppliers for carbon fiber so far are Toray, Toho Tenax and Mitsubishi in Asia; Hexcel, Cytec and Zoltek in the United States as well as SGL in Germany. In the world of carbon fiber, the auto industry could become “the big elephant,” Boeman said. “If I put one pound of carbon fiber on every car in the world, I’d probably exceed world capacity for carbon fiber production. If you introduce transformational technology, this could really take off.” Harald Hamprecht contributed

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Bob Norris evaluates fiber performance. To cut carbon fiber’s cost, the lab is joining with 14 suppliers to test cheaper raw materials.
major shareholder in SGL with a stake of 22 percent. Volkswagen AG surprised BMW in February by acquiring an 8 percent stake in SGL. It has since raised its stake to almost 10 percent. In response, Klatten increased her share to almost 30 percent, giving Germany’s richest woman a blocking stake that prevents outside companies from influencing corporate strategy at SGL. BMW CFO Eichiner said he does not foresee any problems resulting from BMW and VW having stakes in SGL. “Every manufacturer is welcome to buy carbon from SGL,” he said. “We see no disadvantage to this because we only produce the precursor at the SGL joint venture. The expertise to manufacture carbon fiber components is and will remain the property of BMW and is being used initially at BMW’s Landshut factory.” To cut costs and allow mass production, the partners are working to perfect a process called resin transfer molding. The carbon fiber fabric is placed in a mold, and resin is injected under high pressure and temperature. The process, which once took 20 minutes per part, now requires less than 10 minutes. Robots cut and handle the material and components, which previously were made by hand. The robots will help BMW achieved big savings. A pound of carbon fiber now costs only a third as much as a pound used in the M3 CSL coupe’s roof when the limited-edition car was introduced in 2003. The dramatic price drop is forcing car manufacturers to re-think how they will make cars in the future (see story, page 53). Said BMW engineer Reinhardt: “You do not need a press shop, you do not need welding

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