Mike Day, the North America Development Director of DuPont Automotive, will discuss about how composites and plastics can enable the industry to support economic fuel usage without any power compromise at the “Plastics in Lightweight & Electric Vehicles 2011”conference organized by Plastics News on November 9 in Livonia, Michigan.
The Director has stated that it is critical to reduce the weight of system and components, if the vehicle is power-driven by a conventional internal combustion engine or by electric or hybrid systems.
According to the OEM information, over one-third of the fuel utilization in a vehicle, powered by fossil fuel is mass-reliant. The company has calculated that plastic content below the hood comprises approximately 16% of the weight of a vehicle, which may increase to 25% over the subsequent five years.
Day has commented that composites and plastics will remain as ‘go-to’ materials for decreasing weight in chassis, drivelines, engines and transmissions. Metals have been replaced by plastics in several applications and yet there is a large amount of scope for replacement.
Over 1,700 latest products have been previously unveiled by DuPont and the company spent 22% of the R&D budget of $1.7 billion for developing new materials and chemistry in order to decrease the fossil fuel dependence.
Day has commented that though the company is moving in the right path, the portfolio still requires to be expanded to attain the challenges of next-generation lightweighting.
In order to harmonize the current facilities in Europe, Japan, South and North America, DuPont invested for new partnership in the centers located in China, India and Korea.
Over 100 product portfolios and materials are provided by DuPont for the worldwide automotive industry. The company is dedicated to partnering with customers throughout the value chain for expanding new materials, systems, components and products that enable minimizing reliance on fossil fuels and protecting the environment and people.
Source: http://www2.dupont.com/