Nissan develops process that speeds up production of carbon fibre car parts

Over the last couple of decades, carbon fibre has made its way into mass-market car manufacturing with even regular passenger cars featuring this lightweight material in trims and parts. Now, Nissan claims it has developed a process that speeds up production of carbon fibre car parts.

According to the Japanese carmaker, the new process speeds up the development of car parts made from carbon fibre reinforced plastics, or CFRP. Lightweight yet extremely strong, the material can be used to make cars that are safer and more fuel efficient. Use of carbon fibre can also help lower a car’s centre of gravity when applied to upper body parts, making it more dynamic in its handling.

Nissan aims to use the new process to mass-produce CFRP parts and introduce them in more cars for customers. The company claims this innovation can cut the lead time to developing such components by as much as half, and cycle time for moulding by about 80 per cent, compared with conventional methods.

Carbon fibre, although more commonly used of late, is still expensive compared with other conventional materials such as steel. This, along with the difficulty in shaping CFRP parts, has stood in the way of mass production of automotive components from the material.

Nissan has effectively tweaked the existing production method known as compression resin transfer moulding. This method involves forming carbon fibre into the right shape and setting it in a dye with a slight gap between the upper dye and the carbon fibres. Resin is then injected into the fibre and left to harden.

However, Nissan’s engineers have now developed techniques to precisely mimic the permeability of the resin in carbon fibre, while visualising resin flow behavior in a dye using an in-die temperature sensor and a transparent dye. The result of the successful simulation was a high-quality component with shorter development time.