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my_project.docxProject Idea
Since the development of the first modern car in 1886, the design, function and performance of the modern cars has been evolved with every passing year (Kear, 1993). In the 21st century, the idea of designing and developing electric powered cars from plug-in charging or solar batteries is at its peak. For the best speed, better fuel efficiency and long mileage, lightweight cars were assumed as one of the best options. The organizations/companies that have planned to come up with electric drive vehicles as well as those who have plans to improve fuel efficiency have the same objective, i.e. to develop an innovative design, high safety measures, low carbon emission while delivering good speed and medium to long range mileage (Kear, 1993).
To achieve this goal, automobile manufacturing companies can consider a number of modifications. The car body should be made of aluminium instead of steel which is quite hard, but is comparatively lighter in weight. The aerospace industry has been using aluminium as a major material in the production of air crafts. Other possible solutions for light weight cars can be the use of high quality hard plastic, the design changes to reduce the weight, the adaptation extrusion (the development of pies and frames like Pasta), the use of polymers for, the use of wood, and carbon fibers to eliminate the weight of glass fibers (Cantor, Grant & Johnston, 2008).
For the development of a lightweight car, a company can follow the following design structure.
The body of the car should be made of a blend of aluminum and high strength steels. The interior should have an extensive use of good quality plastic and wood, polymers for roof, floor, hoods and engine cradles, and at some points such as wheel rims should be made of carbon fiber. The use of these materials will help companies to manufacture really strong lightweight cars
The interior design, luxurious look and attractiveness are key selling/marketing point of automobiles. For this purpose, the use of high quality plastic and wood in the interior of the car will help the car manufacturers to improve its elegance and style without affecting the objective of manufacturing a lightweight car. Plastic and wood are also environment friendly materials and are very affordable. People today are highly environmental and health conscious and it has been observed over the past few years that people prefer to purchase environmentally friendly materials to show them as a socially responsible citizen. The use of environmental friendly materials will improve the brand image of the automobile manufacturing companies and will present them as socially responsible companies. The advancement of technologies has simplified the processing of various types of materials that are environmentally friendly, lighter in weight and can be used in a number of innovative manners.
Polymers can be a good option to use in the manufacturing of roof, floor, hoods and engine cradles. Polymers are a type of plastic with a different molecular structure. These are commonly used for the weight saving, parts consolidation, design flexibility and ease of fabrication. There are a number of polymer types that are equally popular in the automobile industry for various uses such as PP, TPO, PC and TEO, however, the purpose of use is almost same for all the different types. In addition to roof, floor, engine cradles and hoods, polymers can be used for outer panel of the doors, radio housing, tires, handles and fog lights. The use of plastics and polymers is very beneficial from the manufacturer’s point of view because it is affordable and easy to incorporate in the existing facilities (Kear, 1993).
In addition to the above mentioned materials, carbon fiber is another option that can be used for the manufacturing of an entire car, because carbon fiber is very affordable and is very light in weight as well as it is quite durable and stiff just like steel. However, despite its too many advantages, it has the biggest disadvantage that it is not usable after recycling and in this sense it is not environmentally friendly. However, carbon fiber can be slightly used for achieving the weight reduction objective. Due to its strength, stiffness and light weight it is good to use carbon fiber for manufacturing wheel rims (BROWN, 2013).
The use of light weight materials in the manufacturing of a car will help an automobile company to achieve the desired goals in addition to weight reduction. The use of these materials can help a company to cut the weight of a car up to 60% as compared to a conventional heavy steel body car. The reduction in weight will automatically improve the fuel efficiency and it is believed that a 10% reduction in the weight of a car can result in 8% fuel efficiency (Cantor, Grant & Johnston, 2008). Moreover, electric drive cars, whether using plug-in charging sources or renewable energy cells can get benefits from the weight reduction, i.e. the car manufacturer can install a little bigger battery in the car to improve its mileage.
To half a light weight car, we need to reduce the size of the engine. For this project, i will use two different engines, one of them normal combustion and the other is electric motor which as a result, I can have greater and cleaner power than one engines like normal cars. Electric engines can produce a lot of torque that can help the car performance a lot.
I also would like to talk about the transmission, as you know the normal transmission is one of the heaviest pieces in cars nowadays. And the way to reduce the size of it is to use the Continuously variable transmission(CVT) which is lighter than the normal transmissions.
References
BROWN, S. (2013). Carbon Fiber, Light and Strong, Arrives Where It’s Most Needed. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/automobiles/carbon-fiber-light-and-strong-arrives-where-its-most-needed.html?_r=0
Cantor, B., Grant, P., & Johnston, C. (2008). Automotive engineering. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Kear, B. (1993). Materials research agenda for the automotive and aircraft industries. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Nunney, M. (1998). Light and heavy vehicle technology. Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann.
