Materials

Convincing faux-leather interior door panel skins are plastic 2010 Taurus SHO doors feature spray polyurethane skins that mimic hand-wrapped leather down to the surface, stitching, and draping details. Read full story

MMC brake drum 45% lighter than cast iron Lightweighting is a goal not just for light vehicles, as the folks at Century Inc. will gladly tell you. Its Advanced Materials Division has developed an aluminum metal matrix composite (MMC) manufacturing technology, along with a demonstrator brake drum for heavy trucks that weighs 38.5 lb (17.5 kg) and is interchangeable with standard cast iron drums weighing 70 lb (32 kg). Read full story

Conductive plastic for a better (lighter) battery “While you can’t change the basics of how batteries work, you can change the materials that are used to create them,” asserted Bill Robinson, the CEO of Integral Technologies Inc. And that is precisely what the Bellingham, WA-based company did; it has developed a moldable conductive plastic called ElectriPlast, a polymer blend that can be used to conduct electricity. Read full story

Sunny days ahead for plastic solar modules Solar modules in vehicles are still very much niche products. One reason is glass-based module manufacturing limits the use of photovoltaic cells in size and weight, according to Proof Design and Innovation Management. The German company presented a plastic-based solution, the Composite Solar Module, at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Read full story