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Structural composite materials offer automotive engineers an excellent opportunity to produce automotive components that achieve weight savings, improved NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) and inherent corrosion protection. Components designed and fabricated from automotive structural composite systems have demonstrated these capabilities during laboratory and in-service durability testing. Components evaluated to date have been employed in areas of the vehicle not likely to encounter high temperatures and with controlled exposure to harsh environments. More extensive use of structural composites will demand that future structural components be located in areas where they will likely encounter a wider range of temperature extremes as well as increased exposure to various environmental and automotive fluids.

Composite materials present automotive designers with unique opportunities for reduction of weight and increased performance when applied to vehicle structures. In addition these materials, through large-scale part integration, may also enable cost effective low volume production of derivative vehicles likely to be desired in the future marketplace. The development and demonstration of rapid composite processing techniques which provide cost effective manufacture of such structures is a requirement for the exploitation of the technology. A key process currently being investigated is High Speed Resin Transfer Molding (HSRTM). In HSRTM resin is injected into a heated tool that contains a three dimensional glass preform in the net shape of the final part. At this time, fabrication of the preform itself appears to be the major barrier for near-term implementation of this process. Currently most preforming of complex three dimensional shapes has been done with a cut and place process.