Almost There

http://www.teijin.co.jp/english/news...ebd111209.html

68ragtop69

Sounds very promising!!!

R23HTC

Dudeurgettnavette

Interesting

CarBoy

Sounds like a place to put some $$ in the stock

Almost There

So i did some digging and it ends up Teijin won out on a program initiated by the department of energy. The program (PNGV), works with companies to test and develop an effective "electron beam curing system". EBC is a carbon fiber curing system that eliminates temperature curing in an autoclave and replaces it with blasting prepreg carbon parts with x-rays. The reason this isn't old news is because a new resin had to be developed that was radio-active sensitive and didn't use a hardener as a catalyst. The resin was developed under sponsorship of the department of energy program called CRADA. The end result is TEJIN was able to produce carbon fiber parts in under a minute, with multiple parts being cured simultaneously due to the penetration characteristics of x-rays. In short, this is huge news. Huge. In case you are wondering if RTM and Vacuum Film Transfer manufacturing methods are related to this, they are not, and will probably be immediately superseded by EBC.

LouieM

Sounds like great news for the future of our favorite car.

zland

Lets see; many say the C7 must increase market share of younger buyers & at the same time suggesting use of CF. To me there is a conflict being if you want younger buyers, the cost has got to be lower & adding expensive materials like CF will increase the price.

I still find it ironic how many people point to the Corvette being a car for older people. My point is how many younger buyers get Ferrari's? Speaking of Ferrari's, how many units do they sell each year compared to a Corvette?

Jinx

Younger buyers love carbon fiber.

And, to beat a dead horse, GM wants younger buyers i.e. younger people with money i.e. conquest sales from the Germans.

PureSwank

Not bad at all

KevinK

"So i did some digging and it ends up Teijin won out on a program initiated by the department of energy. The program (PNGV), works with companies to test and develop an effective "electron beam curing system". EBC is a carbon fiber curing system that eliminates temperature curing in an autoclave and replaces it with blasting prepreg carbon parts with x-rays. The reason this isn't old news is because a new resin had to be developed that was radio-active sensitive and didn't use a hardener as a catalyst. The resin was developed under sponsorship of the department of energy program called CRADA. The end result is TEJIN was able to produce carbon fiber parts in under a minute, with multiple parts being cured simultaneously due to the penetration characteristics of x-rays. In short, this is huge news. Huge. In case you are wondering if RTM and Vacuum Film Transfer manufacturing methods are related to this, they are not, and will probably be immediately superseded by EBC."


This would suggest that carbon fiber is about to get a lot cheaper.

v26278

And to lay another blow on that dead horse, when GM says "younger buyers" I think they are referring to anyone under 50. They just want to move the needle from the current 50+ average, I'm sure they'd be happy if the average C7 buyer was 40 - 45 yrs old

McGirk94LT1

So whole carbon fiber front end and roof(to help with weight balance), plastic in the rear, and probably all the c7's will use aluminum frames is my guess the way GM has invested in aluminum. Their initial investment in making almost all their v8's aluminum has paid off substantially by making everything cheaper. Now its time for the frames mayhaps?

Lifted07Sierra

So the frame will get a couple hundred pounds lighter. And we will have light weight hoods and roofs.
I can see a vette dropping 500lbs, whats that a good 5-6mpg more?